My truck was sort of squealing lately so I picked up the underdrive pulleys (alternator, crank, water) and a gatorback belt and the squealing is worse. Any ideas?

98 3.0 4x4

 

bump help please

 

belt tensioner maybe? or a bad bearing or something? bad idler pulley, just throwin some guesses out there

 

any ideas on how to diagnose the problem?

 

three things i can think of off the top of my head are listen carefully with the engine running, with the engine off feel the pulleys to see if any of em have side to side play in them indicating they are worn, also at work we have stethoscopes that we use to listen to a specific point while the engine is running

also try searching through this section and look for threads relating to bad belt tensioners, im pretty sure i saw a few of them a while back, when the tensioner goes bad people were saying it made some nasty squeeling noises

 

Could be the idler or tensioner pulley bearing going bad. Don't wait much longer!

Each is bearing part number 6203-2RSJ (NAPA). Easy to replace just the bearing if your pulley is straight. There are various part numbers for those bearings (6203-xxxx) as they are used in lawn mowers, pulleys, etc, so you want to buy the better ones, which cost more and last longer (I hope).

If you PM me an e-mail address, I can send you photos of the pulley/bearing re-grease.

I dis-assemble and re-grease my pulley bearings and am using that 6203-2RSJ as a test for longevity. It cost 16.99 alone, which is about what a new pulley with a bearing costs.

If you are handy enough to do the underdrive pulley AND cheap, you too can re-grease them as a troubleshooting step for free. Again, I have photos for the asking.

 

OK, I have replaced the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley and the noise still exists. When I remove the belt and start the truck there is no squeal so it has to have something to do with the pulley system. What should I try next?

 

i replaced my belt on my 1994 supercab back in october 2006, and now when the weather is wet, the belt squeeks already again....i did not buy a alligatorbelt though.

i will listen to mine during the dry weather.

 

gotta worn washer somewhere