Howdy Ags!

I have a 98 mountaineer, and a few months ago the belt tensioner broke. I replaced it and the belt, and it ran fine for awhile. Now, when I start it up and if I get on the gas the belt starts squealing.

Any ideas? I'm thinking maybe one of the bearings isn't spinning freely, and this is putting an extra load on the belt. I don't really have time to work on it myself, and even if I did diagnose the problem I doubt I could fix it myself. Where could I take it in Bryan or College Station?

I know this isn't a fix per se, but when I've got a belt that's making noise I usually stick a bar of soap onto the belt as it's rotating. It usually gets rid of the noise, if not, then I move onto properly diagnosing and fixing the problem.

If it's a new belt they kinda stretch after some use, so it might just need some tightening.

It has the spring loaded belt tensioner, so it's impossible to tighten.

If it is squealing as in slipping under load, sounds like your tensioner is bad. Take the belt off, see if the tensioner has any spring pressure or if its bearings are failing.

If it is good, perhaps one of your driven components has a problem. With the belt off, your alternator should spin freely, and should be able to turn the air conditioner pulley by hand. You should also be able to turn the compressor itself, just not as easily.

A lot of people like Svecicks for service.

If you buy a cheap/crappy belt it might be slightly the incorrect size. I bought a new belt at Autozone and it squealed, so I took it back and bought a higher quality one from another store. The problem went away.

I bought a good belt (Goodyear Gatorback), and like I said I replaced the tensioner. I think I'll take it in somewhere, because even if I find what's wrong (I'm guessing one of the components it's driving is binding) I probably couldn't fix it. Thanks Canyon.

[This message has been edited by AggieOgre09 (edited 11/1/2007 10:39a).]

The belt on my truck also started doing that out of the blue. I was taking it to the mechanic for something unrelated anyway so I asked him about it. Naturally, it quit squealing right before I got there. Took him a while, but it finally made noise. He couldn't find anything wrong, but suggested cleaning the pulleys to make sure there isn't dirt, debris, etc. on them. I'm also going to try a new belt.

Go to Autozone, O'Reilly's, etc. and purchase a bottle of Marvel mystery oil (I think it's called that). Spray it on your belts and the squeak will go away.

Pay attention folks, squeaking is just noise, a little spray of MMO or WD40 or soap will quiet it for a while. If it is squealing, that would indicate slippage, which will not be cured by spraying stuff on on it.



[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 11/2/2007 8:34a).]

ddp

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 11/2/2007 8:33a).]

Canyon, you mentioned Svecicks in a previous post. Where's that at?

http://www.leonsevciks.com/