Water Pump Squeak

[Danger98Ranger]

Need alittle help on this one. About a month ago I changed both the idler and tensioner pulley and took care of the squeak. About 2 weeks the squeak came back and figured it was the water pump since the water pump was original. So changed it and now it is worse then before. Any ideas out there for this one?

Oh and by the way it's a 1998 Ford Ranger with the 3.0 and 156000 miles.

 

[Earl43P]

Alternators can squeak when their bearings go bad.
Some growl, whir, whine, it's hard to describe sounds.

Use a piece of garden hose to pinpoint the source of the sound.

 

[RonD]

You should be able to "feel" a squeak.

Remove belt and spin each pulley, feel it for wobble.
New doesn't mean "it works" anymore, it means "it's never been tested", so check the new idler and tensioner and water pump.

Squeak can also be a loose or misrouted belt

 

[McCormack]

Ranger 3.0 tensioners are poorly designed which causes the tensioner pulley to go out of alignment which cause the serp belt to squeak. Put a straight edge on your tensioner pulley and check for alignment with your crank pulley... if it's out of alignment, then that's probably causing your serpentine belt to squeak.

A new tensioner sometimes fixes the problem but it's not guarantied, because like I said 3.0 tensioners are poorly designed and even a new one can pull out of alignment. If you install a new one, check it with a straight edge.

Another option is to shim your present tensioner into alignment... I did that to my tensioner a hundred thousand miles ago and I haven't had a problem since.

Be aware that some Rangers come from the factory with the wrong size idler/tensioner pulleys installed which stretches the serpentine belt way too tight which pulls the weak tensioner out of alignment. My serp belt was so tight from the factory that when changing out the belt I could barely get it on the pulleys. There are two sizes of pulleys offered for the 3.0 serpentine system, and I went to the parts store and got one of the slightly smaller pulleys and swapped it onto my tensioner and now the belt goes on much easier and doesn't put nearly the strain on my tensioner like it used to.

 

[Danger98Ranger]

Ok thanks I will look in to that, what would be the best way to shim it.

 

[McCormack]

What I did was got a couple of different thicknesses of thin sheet stock from the hardware store, then I cut out some washer-shaped shims about the size of a penny out of the stock (you need a small hole in the center of the shim - drill the hole before you cut out the shim), then take off your tensioner and hang the shim(s) on the locating peg that's on the tensioner and reinstall the tensioner. Install the serp belt and check for alignment... I had to experiment with different sized and number of shims before I got it right.

In regard to taking the tensioner off, I found that the easiest way to do it was to unbolt my radiator fan shroud and slide it back towards the engine and then go through the fan blades with a 1/4" ratchet and extension to loosen the tensioner bolts.