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Squealing pulley

I need some help figuring out which of my engine pulleys is squeaking. I drive my truck almost every day, but this week I let it sit for about 3 days before firing it up. Well the bastard starts squeaking like a cricket upon start up, I open the hood and am unable to pinpoint the source, I tried the screwdriver method, the hose method, trying to pinpoint it but I can't seem to find it.

Is there some trick to do to isolate each pulley to see if it is the cause?

The A/C compressor has always had a slight chirp, and that particular chirp is still present even with this new one. It almost sounds like either the alternator (about 5 months old) or the power steering pump. Once I get on the gas, it goes away, but when at idle or dropping rpm it's very audible.

The belt looks ok, has decent tension, but I noticed that the tensioner is hopping about while the engine is running, not sure if that is normal or not.

Any tips, tricks, advice would be appreciated. TIA

Reply to
Tzihuac
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Reply to
George

Ditto on the tensioner, it shouldn't be "hopping about" like that.

Reply to
Rich B

your tension pulley should have some play about a 1/8 " or less but shouldnt be jumping as stated the bearing or spring in the pulley could be out whiched caused you bearing to go also ive come acrossed the bearing in the idler pulley going out and causing this problem first Id change out the tension pulley also change my belt sounds like it could have streached in the process

Reply to
Steve Cook

Thanks for the replies, I checked my dad's '94 c1500 earlier and I noticed the tensioner was perfectly still while it ran... looks like I'll have to replace mine and the belt. Now my Haynes manual says nothing about replacing the tensioner... is it a straightforward removal/replacing, do I need any special tools?

Thanks again.

Reply to
Tzihuac

all you do is release the tension on the belt (use a socket and breaker bar on the *pulley* bolt and pull away from the belt), remove the belt, remove the single bolt holding it on and replace with new tensioner.

-Bret

Reply to
Bret Chase

Reply to
nozel

Did just that a few minutes ago, removed the belt and started spinning all the pulleys. The tensioner spun noisily, however there was no side to side play, but I went and bought a Napa tensioner anyways. The alternator spins ok, and I can hear stuff moving around inside, so I'm not sure if that's bad or not. The power steering pump seems very sluggish to spin. Air pump and others seem ok.

I came online to verify one thing Bret mentioned....

That single bolt, is it threaded normally? i.e. counterclockwise loosens it? What I have to do is pull the tensioner up until it maxes out, and it's very difficult to get the bolt to move. I just want to make sure I'm turning it the proper direction and not stripping the bolt. A friend tells me it might be a reverse thread, so I just want to make sure. Thanks.

Reply to
Tzihuac

it's threaded normally... on my truck the bolt just turns hard. once you have the belt off you can let the tension off of the arm by simply allowing the tensioner to turn until it stops. DON'T try and unbolt it while you're holding tension on it... you'll either get hurt or break something.

-Bret

Reply to
Bret Chase

Bret, well I found out, the hard way, that the tensioner bolt is reverse thread on my truck. I ended up twisting the bolt head right off. I had to take the entire arm assembly off and drill out the rest of the bolt. Lesson learned.

On a side note I wiggled the fan blades to the water pump and I noticed the had a bit of play, looks like a water pump is in the near future and might be the source of my chirping.

Reply to
Tzihuac

which bolt did you twist off? the one that holds the pulley to the tensioner arm or the one that hold the tensioner assembly on? the bolt I was referring to was the one that holds the entire assembly on, on my '88 it's regular thread, on my Dad's '90 it's also regular thread. I wasn't aware that just the pulley could be replaced.

-Bret

Reply to
Bret Chase

Ah! yeah I was referring to the pulley bolt (when I asked for the tensioner at NAPA the guy gave me just the pulley, so I figured THAT was the tensioner). Anyways the actual assembly is regular thread, the pulley is reverse. The new pulley itself was 25 bucks, but since I was unable to find the pulley bolt anywhere, I had to break down and buy the whole assembly (55 bucks at the dealer).

Reply to
Tzihuac

. Re: Squealing pulley On a recent episode of.... alt.autos.4x4.chevy-truck

we heard.... snipped-for-privacy@earthlink.net (Tzihuac) say......

On a side note I wiggled the fan blades to the water pump and I noticed the had a bit of play,

looks like a water pump is in the near future and might be the source of my chirping.

Reply to
Scribb Abell

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