Can I just buy a shorter belt,and leave the compressor mounted as is?

If the bearing in the clutch pulley is bad, just replace it. If the bearing is okay, there is no need to do anything.

I would just leave things the way they are

Why spend time & money when you don't
have to

You don't just change the belt,thus the added expense

You need a bypass kit to replace the compressor

Check online or at parts store to research that

The car is 16 years old ,save your money & buy a
code reader for OBD2 or some tools to work on
your car,they always need updating

the belt breaks due to bearing wear in one of the pulleys... check each pulley for wear by hand, I imagine you heard squealing noise...

An A/C bypass pulley is an alternative to expensive air conditioning repairs. Most late model vehicles use a single belt to drive the water pump, alternator, power steering pump, and A/C compressor. When an A/C compressor fails and locks up, it will break the belt and leave you stranded. Until recently, the only solution was to spend hundreds of dollars to replace the compressor and repair the A/C system. Dorman make these. You can also buy a used compressor at apull-a-parts place for less than that.

no, as long as it isn't driving anything else, you can remove the belt.

I would suggest that you have the A/C pump replaced. In the mean time you can remove the A/C belt, even if it's the entire serpentine belt and replace it with a shorter one to eliminate the A/C Compressor. If you go to your local parts store and ask for a belt for that model car they will ask if it has air conditioning or not, tell them that it does but you want the belt for the non air conditioned model and a mounting diagram. This will leave you with no air but in a short while the compressor is going to burn that belt off anyway.

most likely yes. I did it on a 91 grand am no problem.
The longer original belt went around the motor mount so I had to remove the motor mount , but the shorter belt ( non ac ) does not go around motor mount , so I would sugest just cut the old belt off instead of having to mess with the motor mount.

u do not reroute the belt u buy an ac delete pulley, remove the compressor and install pulley where compressor used to be, contact ford for the pulley. very easy job.

Or buy the shorter belt and bypass the whole thing a/c comp.and all.just measure using some string and go buy the belt.

You can buy an A/C bypass pulley from an O'reilly auto or anyone that supplies Dorman parts. the pulleys are cheap and allow you to mount things and use the stock serp belt. You will have no AC ,though. The kit is designed with the intent of eliminaing the compressor, which is very expensive to replace.