The whole way home and still my pulleys/belt makes a crazy squeal when running. It's always had a really minor squeal but now since going through the mud/water puddles on the Centralia trip it's gotten real bad. Is it one of the pulley's that go 'bad' and do this, is there anything I can lubricate or fix? Also this isn't from the trip, but I think one of my wheel bearings is going bad. My drivers' one went about a year ago, and now I think the other one is dying. It sounds like I have huge tires and makes a low noise like i'm running swampers or something, it's gotten a little worse since the trip I think. Is the wheel bearing a possible fix?

 

It can be the pulley, but the water on the belts causing them to slip can "glaze" them.

Most of my squeaking was solved by using a Goodyear "Gatorback" belt. It's a serpentine belt with "treads" cut in it and it grips like crazy. Before gatorback's, I had a terrible squeal/squeak.

But sometimes it does make the idler squeak for a bit after water.

That front sound can be the bearings or it can be ball joints going bad and the tires beginning to cup and wear. If you rotate the tires front to back and it goes away, that's what it probably is.

 

Mine didn't start until I used a citrus degreaser in the engine bay of one of my 3.0's. The gatorback cured it. I do know that lubrication only made mine worse. Belt dressing worked for about 30 seconds and then the noise came back worse. I know other people have to repace the idler pulley to get it to go away.

 

ughh.... that sound...
When I blew a hole in my rad. tank the freakin rad fluid decided to spray right on the belt. Was kinda nice listening to a dieing birdy under my hood all the way home.

 

so a gatorback belt should fix the problem

 

bob and kris replaced my idler pulley today cuz it was loose and couldnt be tightend, something like 26 bucks for a new one, and maybe 5 minutes of work. squeak gone :-)


(isnt it great that it actually sounds like i know what im talking about?)

 

Thanks D. I may have to visit one day and do that, I'll think about it.

 

anyone have a link or are part number ..or a good place to find the gator for our trucks?..

 

Autozone carries them. I think it's the 04060882 -- but that's from memory and I may be remembering wrong. They can look it up for you -- that's where I got mine.

 

Thanks John, just checked advanceauto and they didn't carry them, I had to replace one of my license plate bulbs, one burned out, and I asked if they carried them when I was there.

 

Autozone and A-line were the only two last time I looked at the gatorback website. They have a "enter your zipcode" search for retailers.

 

I love Gatorbacks...there is a trend of replacements parts that have been used on all my past vehicles...Gatorback belts, BFG tires, Bosch plug wires, Sylvania bulbs the list goes on an on...have yet to have a problem with anything listed.

Just Gatorback it!

 

I'm going to autozone to pick one up (gatorback) this coming week. I'll reply with how it works for my problem.

 

if you dont have cash for a gator back I have one on my truck, get a bar of soap and coat your belt with that, bump it so you can get teh whole belt and see if that helps at all, just a temp fix until the soap wears off, but I've seen it done and it worked

 

yea i used candel wax for a day, and i jsut replaced mine today... its a pain...

the key is tho, hook up all your pulleys exept the tension one... then take it off of the AC or Aleternater pulley and then put it over the tension pulley... then push the pulley down and reconnect the AC/aleternator pulley... i spent like 20 mins tring to get it on untill i figured out to do that

 

I just put the gatorback on, really easy to do, I had Luke (shadyluke) help slide it on while I held back the tensioner. I'll see for a few days how it works out for the squeak. The old belt looks brand new. I think the squeak is coming from the idler pulley.

 

I drove my truck for a few miles, there is absolutely NO squeak any more since the gatorback belt installation. Hopefully it stays that way, i'll have to see when it rains and when I go through some puddles and get the belt wet.

So the gatorback did fix the problem.