99' fan belt chirp

[IMenriched]

My neighbor has a 99' ranger with the 3.0 a/c auto 2wheel drive.

admittingly he doesn't drive much...rarely over 15miles out of town...most is in town...few blocks and shutting it off.

anyhow...starts fine...runs fine....but his fan belt has a very distintive chirp to it when it's running. if he puts bit of soap on the belt (front edge) it quiets up quick as a whistle.

the belt doesn't look bad...meaning no cracking, or terrible ware patterns...
the only thing is he does have a little fraying on the front edge on the belt...and not all the way around the belt....about 1/3 of it.

Is there something more to this than just a belt....water pump bearing or idler bearing??

or will this correct itself with warmer weather???

 

[fleck]

There's that nasty tensioner assembly again.

Quickest way to check if the tensioner is seized is to grab the belt around the AC side and pull up on it, the belt will let you pull it up a couple inches and you should see the tensioner pulley move if it's not seized. Might as well do a search for tensioner real quick and you'll see all the damn threads we have on this subject.

 

[z3ro]

I had the same problem. After about 2 months, one day i got a horrible constant squeeling. Its the tensioner pulley.

i have the same motor as you

 

[Hypnotic Toast]

Use the Search Bar next time, there's been too many posts on this subject.

And what's been said is right, it's most likely the Tensioner Assembly. Replace the entire assembly and Idler pulley and it should be fine.

 

[IMenriched]

AHHH thanks...I forget about the searching past posts.

I'll inform my neighbor of the good news

 

[kawasakiman27]

thats not really the greatest news because that assembly is almost a hundred bucks at an autoparts store.

 

[fleck]

Actually it's $60 for a US made part at AutoZone.

 

[kawasakiman27]

oh yeah...... my bad I forgot I bought a belt and some other stuff too. thats still pretty high for what it is.

 

[Hypnotic Toast]

oh yeah...... my bad I forgot I bought a belt and some other stuff too. thats still pretty high for what it is.

But it's probably one of the cheapest engine replacements you can do, not to mention the easiest.

And if you want to count in pain and suffering, those who've had a belt squeal would do anything to get rid of it.

 

[rurouni20xx]

i havent had the squeal but i know a lot of ppl that have, lets just say theres a list at the bitchin poll.

 

[99RangerBoss]

i had a 99 3.0 and my tensioner and idler both went and were replaced under warranty and right before the write off it was starting to squeal again so what might work is trying to loosen up on the tension and it should last longer if there is a way to do it thats what a millwright friend of mine said to do.

 

[rurouni20xx]

well relieving the tension on the tensioner will cause the belt to slip more and youll have a minor squeal plus degraded alternator/waterpump/powersteering performance due to slippage esp when using a/c.

 

[classic287]

OK, question. How do you take the tensioner off? Special tool? Take other tings off first? etc..........

 

[McCormack]

The problem with the factory tensioners is that they get pulled out of alignment, which makes the belt squeal. In order to get rid of the squeal you don't necessarily have to buy a new tensioner... put a straight edge on the old tensioner and shim it until it lines up with the crank pulley. End of squeal.
I bought a couple of different thicknesses of sheet stock and made shims about the size of a penny, then drilled a hole in the shims and after removing the tensioner fit the shim(s) over the tensioner locater pin. Keep trying different amounts and thicknesses of shims until the tensioner is correctly aligned.