Squeak Is Back

Paint King · August 19, 2008

Well, I posted around a month ago about a squeak. In the end it turned up to be the belt. Wow, was I ticked. After all the stuff I replaced and to find out it was the belt. But, a month later the squeak is back. Which leaves me to believe either I have something causing belts to wear fast or I just got a bad belt.

Either way the belt will need replaced but what could cause this? A mis-aligned pulley? Bad tensior? Any ideas or am I crazy? How do you determine the cause?

Thanks,

Kyle

bbwb · August 19, 2008

Had a '94 do the same thing...I found that the aftermarket belts were slightly longer than the GM belt. After several belts (and short life before the squeek came back) I put the factory belt on and it eliminated the noise. Also, check your tensioner and pulley alignments.

bbwb

Paint King · August 19, 2008

Okay, so if I end up buying another belt I should go to the stealership? That might be the issue and I hope it is.

How do you check the pulley alignments?

I talked to the guy at aprts store and told him about a tranny leak the truck use to have on the hard line that goes to radiator. He said maybe a pulley has some oil on it so I'm going to try cleaning the pulleys with brake cleaner and see if that does anything.

Kyle

Paint King · August 19, 2008

I tried cleaning pulleys with brake cleaner to make sure there wasn't an oil film left from before. No luck.

I tried belt conditioner. Never again will I do that. Maybe I didn't do something right but I followed the instructions and it made the squeak 10 times worse so the belt had to be replaced. So again no luck.

Went with a better quality belt and cured it so far. Last time the cheap belt made it several weeks so I will see how this holds up. If I don't post back then I just had a crappy belt. If I do then I'll be totally clueless.

Thanks all,

Kyle

Paint King · December 1, 2008

Squeak is back. I have owned the truck 6 months and went through 4 belts and 1500 is misc to find the squeak. About the only thing left to replace is the tensioner. If that doesn't work then I guess I need a new motor? haha

Alljackedup408 · December 1, 2008

throw it on there.. see what happens...lol

Paint King · December 2, 2008

Thats the plan as well as another belt. Just dumped so much money into trying to rid this problem I don't want to spend anymore until after the first of the year. I will post back and see if that was the problem all along. If not I will for sure be needing some assistance.

pennzoil29 · December 2, 2008

I had the same problem on my '99 with the 5.7. I changed the tensioner, idler pulley, and put a AZ belt on, but still had the squeek. I bought a Gatorback belt, and haven't had the squeek since. Just a thought, when you're buying a belt, are you chosing the right one? They will vary in size depending on the alternator amperage. A 105 amp alt will be smaller than a 140 amp. The pullies are a different size. jmo, and good luck.

bbwb · December 2, 2008

Just a couple of things to try if the belt is in good shape and under the proper tension....

One, reverse the rotation on the belt by turning it around. I have found some belts will develop a "tooth" and then make more noise than others.

Check out this link from Gates and another on the power steering pump alignment:

http://www.gates.com/brochure.cfm?brochure...location_id=540

http://www.mightyautoparts.com/pdf/articles/tt119.pdf

If you buy a tensioner, go with the OEM part, they are made better and will give you better life. I don't recall what year this changed etc...but look also at the fixed pulley for noise. From what you described, it sounds like it is the belt issue.

bbwb