Belt issue

[Crazy Cowboy]

When I got my truck with 38k miles I replaced the belt because it made some minor noise when idling and it eliminated the ticking type noise. The belt I replaced it with apparently jumped a notch on one of the pulleys and tore the ouside strip off shortly after. I replaced it again and I noticed a lot of 'wobble' in the belt between the power steering pump and the alternator. The tensioner seems to be tight but I don't know. The power steering pump is a LITTLE noisey but barely audible with the hood shut.

Any ideas? I may do the tensioner OR the pump. Not sure. I did blow a power steering hi pressure line and ran it dry for about 10 min on the highway but it hasn't changed the noise of performance. May have been there all along, just never noticed it before!

 

[Crumm]

I would start by checking the tensioner pulleys and the tensioner itself.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

2nd vote for the tensioner.

Mine went bad a couple of years ago. The edge of the belt towards the rear of the truck was wearing and shedding cords. The shedding cords whipping around broke the dip stick handle off, I was very lucky in being able to get the dipstick out with a very small needle nose.

In my case it was the tensioner. The pivot point was worn and there was enough sideward slop in it, that the tensioner pulleys were no longer in line. Once I got a new tensioner, it was easy to fix, only took me about 10 minutes to put a new tensioner and belt on. And that was in a snow storm. But you'd better fix it now, or you'll be shopping for a new dipstick too!!

Now, there is a two pulley tensioner that can be retrofitted to your truck. I don't know the details, but I'm sure somebody around here will chime in.

 

[Crazy Cowboy]

YOU JINXED ME!! My dipstick didn't break off in the tube though! It pulled the thing out, broke the T-handle off (found it by the steering box) and had wedged the dipstick behind the A/C compressor pulley. Lucky it didn't ruin anything!!

I'm gonna go get a new tensioner. Can't be that much and sounds like it's worth the 10 minutes to just rule it out. Plus, I don't want to buy a third $40 belt!

Thanks guys