I put a Gatorback belt on my 2.3 the other day and when I had it running, it sounded fine. I drove it to work and didn't have an issue. I went to lunch and it sounds horrible. Its whining....a lot. its a really high pitched whine. Could it be the belt? I guess I could just tkae it off and start the truck for a minute to see if the sound goes away but i figured I'd ask first to see if anyone else had this happen with the Gatorbacks.

 

Better take a look -- you may have gotten it on a pulley slightly off to one side -- you know, one rib too far one way or the other.

If the belt and routing is fine, you probably have a pulley going bad that was causing the other belt to have problems. Could be the tensioner or the idler.

I've had nothing but good experiences with these belts. I think, unless you got a "bad" one somehow, that you have another problem. Make sure all your pulleys are turning and look for signs/sounds from them to try to determine what's making the sound. A paper towel roll or something that narrows down your sound pickup is good for trying to locate it -- or a piece of pipe.

Just be careful of those moving belts!!!

 

it sounds like the tensioner......it is either not installed right or it is going bad!

 

well 184,000 miles....i guess its pretty overdue lol I'll try going that route. maybe a shot of WD-40 on the tensioner pully nut will lube it up enough to make the sound vanish for a minute so I can find the problem. That sounds like a good place to start. Thanks guys.