I've got a 2001 Ranger 3.0 a/t. After getting it on the road after putting in a rebuilt engine it has a terrible belt(?) squeal. It's not the typical squeal from a belt. It almost sounds like a continuous high pitch cricket chirping sound. I replaced the belt and no difference. Still a squeal. Thought it might be a pulley bearing and replaced both the tensioner and idle pulley. Steal had the squeal. While it was running I decided to splashed a little water on the belt and the squeal stopped immediately but came back shortly after. I then took some belt dressing, sprayed some on. Squeal stopped again only to came back shortly after. My buddy seems to think it might be a glazed pulley. I have noticed that during the summer, I live in Texas, that after it warms up to temp the squealing stops. During the winter it pretty much squeals all the time. Seems to stop after it reaches a certain temp. Very annoying. Before I go thru all the time and money to replace all the pulleys I thought I would throw it out there and see if anyone has had this problem. Thanks.

 

Glazing means a surface is "polished", so very smooth, which is good for some things but not others, lol
A fan belt needs friction to work, needs a good grip to spin pulleys and be driven by crank pulley, so glazing is not good for this

Glazing is very common on fan belt pulleys and is caused by the OLDER belt that was removed because it was slipping/squealing, each time you heard that squeal, a pulley was polished a bit more/glazed because of the slipping
This is why the New Belt can squeal, glazing has been done, new belt can't fix that

But easy to fix
Use wire brush or Emory Cloth or similar COURSE sand paper to rough up pulley surfaces, then PAINT them, the surfaces
Surface needs to be roughed up first or paint can't stick
Paint is not smooth, even though it may look smooth, lol

Power steering pump has the most resistance to spinning, so start there first