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Squealing serp belt

'97 Explorer Limited, V6 SOHC:

I've been trying to silence my serp belt since I replaced it a few months back. I noticed that the smooth idler pulley (above the fan and to the right of the alternator) seems to have originally been coated with something grey (and perhaps, "non-slip"). Mine is quite worn and even shiny in spots with bare metal showing through (perhaps 50% of the surface). I've tried washing the belt and pulley to degrease them. Better now, but only slightly.

With the pulley surface so obviously worn, it indicates the belt has been sliding over it. But I don't know how long it's been that way. The original belt never made a sound, just got cracks in it, which is why I changed it. Maybe the pulley has been ths way for a long time and isn't a problem.

Anyone know if the pulley actually has/had an anti-slip coating of some kind? I may try to buy a replacement, but rather than a shot in the dark, I thought I'd ask for a second opinion here.

thanks,

HK

Reply to
Herb Kauhry
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Freaky... Went to Google for more info and found myself (and this post) on

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Hmm, they mirror the usenet group, and with a nice search function that doesn't feed in all the annoying commercial hits that google gives us.

Reply to
Herb Kauhry

Well, after getting a replacement tensioner and idler - and replacing them - the squeal is still there. However, I have determined that it's the alternator dragging. When I remove the "+" lead that goes over to the battery, the squeal goes away.

The battery is a year old, and I see no symptom of a low battery/non-charging condition. So maybe the alternator is bad? This seems like an odd thing to happen. The alternator turns smoothly, so no bearing trouble there.

Reply to
Herb Kauhry

Just as a point of reference, this is not a good thing to do. You could fry a lot of expensive electronic components by disconnecting a reconnecting the battery when the engine is running.

The alternator is not likely to be bad unless it cannot output the power to recharge the battery. You can bring it to just about any parts store and they will bench test it for you. Of course, since they sell alternators, there is a chance they will tell you it is bad no matter what.

My guess would be the battery it not charged and is drawing too much load from the alternator. When you disconnected the battery you disconnected the load. The alternator was still spinning and you were not getting the squeeling. That tell me the likely problem is the load not the source.

-Fred W

Reply to
Fred W.

I didn't say I did this with the engine running - it wasn't. I was disconnecting the lead from the alternator which GOES to the battery, not the battery.

What I have to figure out is, is there an excessive load on the alternator from somewhere (like the starter having drained the battery and suddenly the alternator is putting out a lot of current to recharge it) or is the 12v from the battery doing an "EMF brake" thing on the alternator for some reason (I wonder if this can happen when a diode in the alternator opens, or the regulator has a problem?) Since the alternator seems to be charging, I'm puzzled.

Reply to
Herb Kauhry

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