Squeaky belt?

psdguy95 · Jun 24, 2011

purpleheart350 said:
if you can get down there and take the PS pump pulley off look at the rod that its on if it looks worn out or looks like it has grooves CHANGE IT. I had that 1/8"-1/4" movment in mine and one of the guys on another forum said it was ok, 2 days later I heard a loud metal PING and looked out my winddow and saw my PS pump pulley bouncing down the road next to me. Now if its just the rod moving in and out you might be ok but I would still say check it.

Tom S said:
It would not suprise me if that was it at all. Lucky enough to be under warranty?

No

. It was replaced by the last guy who owned it before i bought it.

psdguy95 · Jun 25, 2011

Anyone?

Tom S · Jun 25, 2011

The powersteering pump has some play to it for the shaft going in an out. I believe that Gates is supposed to have a better design for the tensioner.

CAT97 · Jun 25, 2011

Quick fix to squeaky belts. while it is running either spray a little WD/40 on it or take a bar of soap and carefully hold it against the v part of the belt. I really can't stress the carefully part enough. It would be a bitch if one's hand was to slip. This is an old fix from and old man. Proceed with extreme caution. Soap lasts longer than the WD/40.

96TxPSD · Jun 25, 2011

How about if it squeals with a new belt, but with a belt that has 270,000 miles on it, it doesn't squeal? I went through about 4 or 5 belts and replaced all the pulleys except the waterpump pulley.

96TxPSD · Jun 25, 2011

and the crank pulley.

Tom S · Jun 25, 2011

I have heard of deglazing the pulleys before but have not done in personally.

I had the same problem for almost a year. Tried a new belt, and
the noise got worse after a week. Even the Gatorback only helped
for two weeks. The belt dressing made it worse,
you could hear me coming from across town. Here is what I did, and
it fixed mine. Wash all "pullies" idlers etc, with soap and water. Use a
toothbrush or other brush to get down into the grooves. Clean the belt
(I used the dishwasher when the wife was out).

The noise will stop, but it may return in a week or two. Repeat the process.
It took two clean ups to stop the noise on my truck. I had replaced the
tensioner, idlers, and have a shop full of belts.

There was a greasy "goo" down in the the grooves, that would be
distributed by the belt. Once that stuff got on the right (or wrong place)
the noise started. It would start like a cricket sound, and then over a few
days the noise was so bad I was turning heads going through town.
(not because of the straight pipe).

The biggest cause of the noise is slight alignment problems AND
silcone sprays.

Mine has been quiet for months, and if it starts that racket again, I'll
clean it again.

Good Luck

I had the same problem. I installed a new belt and one month later it started again.My fix to this is to clean the pulleys with brake clean and sand them down with 180 grit to deglaze them, mainly the smooth pulleys. I have not had a squeak in three months. Hope this helps.

Deputydog · Jun 25, 2011

I had a mysterious squeak too. Ended up putting a Goodyear Gatorback belt on and it's never squeaked since.

psdguy95 · Jun 25, 2011

Tom S said:
I have heard of deglazing the pulleys before but have not done in personally.

Thanks Tom. I'll be throwing my belt in the dishwasher when my moms not home. Lol

Pstroke96 · Jun 25, 2011

i have a napa belt on mine and it doesnt squeak in the least, i replaced it when i did my water pump a few months ago and havnt had any issues. the one that was on there wasnt bad but i had it all apart so it was a good time to change it because i didnt know how old it was, but now i have a good spare.
if you have a squeak give the belt a quick shot of wd40 and if it stopps its the belt. if it doesnt its a pulley. then you can go from there

psdguy95 · Jun 26, 2011

It's deffinatly the belt. I can put water on it and it will stop. The belt did get dirty from the pullies being nasty so I'm going to scrub everything and see what happens.

SDS97_7.3 · Jun 26, 2011

Try some belt dressing it lasts a decent amount of time

psdguy95 · Jun 26, 2011

SDS97_7.3 said:
Try some belt dressing it lasts a decent amount of time

I keep hearing that's a big no no. I have tried that before anyway and it only made it worse.

psdguy95 · Jun 26, 2011

I washed the belt twice, sanded and cleaned the smooth pullies and it all worked for about 5 minutes. I'm thinking it's got to be the belt. I'm getting a goodwar gator back tomorrow and we'll we if that helps before I put this damn thing through a wall.

psdguy95 · Jun 27, 2011

The gatorback comes in two different sizes, 119'' and 119.5''. Which one shouuld i go with?

SDS97_7.3 · Jun 27, 2011

Ive never had a problem with it

purpleheart350 · Jun 27, 2011

I would say go with the smaller one cuz then it will tight on the pulleys and the tensioner will adjust to it and it SHOULDNT squeak

psdguy95 · Jun 29, 2011

Well I fixed it. What I did was sand all the smooth pullies with 220 grit sand paper, washed all of them with purple power then soap and water, let everything dry, then put a Goodyear gatorback belt on. So far not a squeak. The gatorback seems to fit a lit better than my previous belt.