1994 2.3L serpentine belt question

[wizkid00104]

There seems to be a little binding in my belt system. I replaced the alternator with a new one and replaced the idler pulley with a new one. It squeaked horribly off idle and then quieted down. The belt is about a year old. The power steering pump whines pretty loud. I replaced the fluid with synthetic atf and it quieted down. There is no A/C. Any thoughts about the noise or why it struggles to idle a little bit because of binding.

 

[Ranger44]

A squeal sometimes means a water pump is going out. If you have the money, go ahead and replace the belt. They sometimes like to make noise when a glaze forms on them.

 

[wizkid00104]

Is any type of belt better than the other?

Also I just went and listened to the noise again and it is a squeaky ticking noise at low rpm and about 1300 rpm it is no longer noticable

 

[TireIron]

Pull the belt off and check all the pulleys by hand. Spin them and check them for play up and down and in and out. It's very easy to tell if the idler or tensioner pulley is done in, you just replaced the idler, but it would be good to check it anywy and check the tensioner pulley becuase it's the same type as the idler. Spin the waterpump pulley and check that one for play also, it should be very very smooth and there should be no play in it.

 

[Dddaviso7]

Goodyear brand Gator back belts are very good. I had a squeak and i switch to that belt and it went away.

 

[jubangy]

De ja vu lol

2 days before christmas my wife drove my ranger to work. When she got there she called yelling at me cause the power steering went out on the truck, or so she said. And she said right before it did she heard a lot of squeaking then a thud like sound and no power steering. Well I knew a pulley was on it's way out of this world, but I wasn't exactly sure which one.
So anyways I went and looked, and it was the idler pulley. It also tore the belt up nicely, and the idler pulley had been destroyed and the only thing remaining was the bearing it was still bolted in.
I went to the parts store, and it took a while but I they found a pulley that worked, at least they thought lol these chain stores these days suck I liked it much better back in the day when they used books they seemed so much more relaible then their computers these days, that and the people there actually seemed to know alittle bit more then those today. Anywho, I put the pulley and the new belt on and at first all seemed ok. But in the next few days the belt seemed to get way loose and would squeal when you first started it, but when I checked it it didn't seem that loose. I ended up taking it down to napa, and I took the belt off and for some reason all the belts that were listed fo rit were too big. So, I asked for th enext size down, which the guy wasn't to thrilled with oh well as he said it was an inch and an eight smaller, I said good that's what it needs as the tensioner is all the way in there was no more adjustment on it. Well, I put the smaller belt on and it is working perfect no squeaks, no noises and the tensioner ain't making out with the water pump pulley no more.
I changed the tensioner over the summer and after that it did seem as though it was at the end of it's adjustment with new belts. I am not sure I never looked but it could of just been that the new tensioner had a smaller pulley on it, which was ok until I replaced the idler pulley moe then likely with a smaller one I had nothing to compare it to.
The sucky part was when I went to buy the idler pulley, it gets alittle hairy as the only options they give you at advance and autozone is with dealer installed air or factory installed air, which is all well and good but my truck doesn't and never did have any ac.
Napa only asked if it had ac or not. I have found at least in my experience though that rock auto online seems to be more acurate on their parts then autozone and advance. Only sucky part is you have to wait for it to be shipped but so far nothing has taken longer then 3 days.