adam c

iTrader: (2)

My car had been letting out a squeal upon startup for a while. It always went away after a moment or two, so I didnt worry about it. About a week ago I noticed that the ac/ps belt was wearing on the drivers side. I started looking closely, and noticed that the adjustment pulley didnt seem to be lined up right. The lip on the pulley was rubbing the fan belt.

I pulled the intake elbow off, and loosened the 17mm pulley nut. I then loosened the pulley, and removed the belt. It did have some minor wear on the edge that was against the pulley lip. I removed the pulley nut, the pulley, and the spacer. There was no adjustment to move the pulley inward . It appeared that the spacer had to be milled down. I took it to a machine shop. The guy put it on his lathe, and removed about 1/8" from the drivers side of the spacer. $5 later I was on my way home. This effectively moved the pulley into proper alignment. I reinstalled the pulley with the slightly worn side of the belt away from the pulley lip.

Now, no more squeal, and I feel my belt will last a long time. I'm not sure how or why it wasnt lined up right before, but its now fixed!!!

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

There's a weird discrepancy in the spacers for that idler pulley. I've seen different thicknesses. Also, sometimes you can flip the idler pulley around and it will fit fine and not squeal.

I had an intermittent squeal on my car for a while, flipped the pulley around, good to go.

Dale

adam c

iTrader: (2)

I thought about flipping the pulley around. Doing that would have made it a little harder to remove the belt, so I decided to have the spacer cut down. You would think they would all be the same size. Maybe different model years had different spacers (or pulleys), and they got mixed into other year models by accident.

I wonder if my original spacer got switched at some point while it was in for a rebuild several years ago. If so, it can be added to the (long) list of things they screwed up.

I'm just glad the squeal is gone. Now on to the next thing..........

DaleClark

iTrader: (55)

I eventually got the Pettit idler pulley, I think it came with shims or something to compensate for the spacing. Fits and works great, BTW.

In general, if you have belt squeal, you have -

- a really worn out belt
- a belt that's tensioned too tight or loose. You should be able to take the long part of the belt and twist 90 degrees, that's the right amount of slack.
- a belt that's being side loaded from improper idler or pulley placement. Everything has to be dead in line.
- an accessory that's dragging or seizing. I've seen water and AC pumps going out that did this.

Dale