Busy Weekend Working On The Truck.

cujo8 · July 17, 2009

I finally got caught up on the honey do list, so I finally got to doing some maintenance/upgrades to my truck. First thing I did was to replace my knocking GM intermediate steering shaft with the Dorman shaft I picked up from Rockauto.com. This repair went well and was complete in less than an hour. The next on the list was installing a set of Bilstein HD shocks on the front and rear of the truck and while I had the wheels off the front I greased up the front steering linkage. Again this went smoothly and was done in ~ 1.5 hrs. The last thing I attempted was a fix I read about on this site about greasing up squeaky idler and tensioner pulleys rather than buying new ones. I was having some intermittent squeaking going on around my serpentine belt system, so I thought I give this fix a try. I pulled the pulleys off and got the grease seals off the bearings quite easily and low in behold they were almost devoid of grease and almost completely dry. I cleaned them out the best I could and then re-greased then with High temp caliper grease like the tech tip suggested and then replaced the grease seals over the bearings. The bearings felt real smooth after greasing them, so I wiped them down real well and I reinstalled the idler and main tensioner pulley and started up the engine and the squeaks were all gone :-). I went to sleep that night quite happy with all that I accomplished, but my happiness was gone less than a day later. Apparently I must have damaged the grease seals taking them out and reinstalling them, because as I drove the truck and the bearings warmed up the grease I put on the bearings started to seep out of the seals and eventually got onto the drive belt and the squeaking was terrible! I stopped at the auto parts store after work and bought a new Idler & main tensioner pulley along with a new serpentine belt. When I got home I removed all the greasy old stuff and proceeded to clean all the other pulleys thoroughly. I then installed the new pulleys and when I went to install the new serpentine belt it was too short . There are two possible serpentine belts for my truck and it all depends on whether you have a 105 or 145amp alternator in your truck. I had looked at my alternator but I could not tell which one I had, so I guessed I had the 105amp alternator and I guessed wrong. Well I needed to drive my truck to work the next day, so I tried my best to clean up the original belt to see if I could remove the grease. I washed the belt with soap and water thoroughly and then wiped it dry w/ paper towels and it looked pretty good, so I reinstalled it. When I started the engine it sounded fine, but the squeaking came back after only a short while as the belt warmed up. I tried to clean the belt while the engine was running, with some more water and paper towels and it got better, but the squeaks just continued to come back over time.

I picked up the correct belt the next night from the parts store and the counter guy told me he didn't believe this belt would work either, since it was only 0.7" longer than the other belt he sold me the day before, but what was really surprising was that the longer belt was actually $7 cheaper. When I got home I removed the old greasy belt and re-cleaned the pulleys for the third time and installed the new belt and it fit perfectly. I crossed my fingers and started the truck up and the squeaks were all gone, so I cracked open a beer and did my happy dance . Now when I drive the truck I am finally able to appreciate the missing steering clunk and better ride quality that came from the new intermediate shaft and Bilstein shocks. What I learned from this experience was the cheap fix is not always that, since it ended up being rather expensive in the end. If you want to save a few bucks repairing noisy pulleys, the better way to do it would be to press out the old dry bearings and replace them with new high quality bearings for less than $10 (another tech tip I read on this site).

2007VictoryRed · July 17, 2009

Sounds Good. I had the dealer replace my steering shaft under warrenty. And also Put some HD belstein shocks. I have to say My truck Is 100 times better. I no how you fell. Good job

Tsmith · July 17, 2009

I could only use the OEM Motorcraft Serpentine Belt on my '96 Ford F-150. Any aftermarket belts would squeal like hell, kinda weird I thought.

dwhults · July 17, 2009

I just put the Bilstein HDs on my truck a few months back along with an Addco front sway bar. Awesome upgrade! Glad everything worked out.

Z71kris · July 17, 2009

I hit mine belts with a little wd 40 a few months and the squelling went away for a while, and just started to come back a little, so I will hit it again soon..