02 3.0 V6 - Squealing Serpentine belt - Suspect power steering pulley

[Mountaineer95]

Hello, I just bought an 02 ranger, seems to run fine aside from a squealing serpentine belt. The squeal is constant, i did the water spray test and it suggests a misalignment. I went ahead and took the belt off and spun the pulleys by hand. I read that it is normal for that pulley to have some amount of play (no wobble, just a very slight movement in and out) and resistance, which it does, it doesn't turn freely like the idler or tensioner. I'm about to replace the idler and tensioner and clean the pulleys to see if that fixes the issue. The power steering also does not seem to have any resistance or drag to it. any suggestions?

 

[fixizin]

Over time the tensioner arm tends to wear out its pivot, and swing away from the block, leaving the tensioner pulley out of alignment/out-of-plane with the other pulleys, causing the squeal. While there's great ideas about using a metal yardstick or laser-level to check alignment, mine was so bad I could easily see "nekkid eye" that it was WAY out of alignment, like 7+ degrees... check yours and replace if necessary.

Remember, belt-squeal is not just annoying, it's antagonistic to optimum functioning, and it's accelerating belt wear and tear.

 

[HT08]

Keep in mind that if your cam shaft synchronizer is going bad it will make the same sound as a belt squeak. Check it out there are a lot of posts on it.

 

[fixizin]

Keep in mind that if your cam shaft synchronizer is going bad it will make the same sound as a belt squeak. Check it out there are a lot of posts on it.

True, but that's easy to isolate--just run for a minute or two with belt OFF.

 

[HT08]

Yes indeed, hopefully the OP will read this.