The title should say "Squeal." I spelled it so wrong spell check thought it was another word.

I bought a 1997 Dakota 5.2 with a belt squeal, only 62K miles. I have a 1996 3.9 and fixed a similar squeal problem with an idler pulley at 213K miles. To make a long story short I have changed the Idler pulley, the complete idler tension assembly, and the belt, all with Gates products. The truck looked to have a brand new Gates belt on it when I bought it. After the belt change it was quiet for about 100 miles and the squeal came back with a vengeance. I am at a loss. The water pump turns by hand smoothly and the fan clutch has a tiny bit of front to back play but I was told that was normal.


Could it be the the OEM fan or the water pump putting excess drag on the belt?


1997 Dodge Dakota 5.2L 318 2wd 62,312 miles.

 

Wait, belt squealing isn't normal?

Alternator and fan would be two big resistance sources. The alternator pulley is ribbed, so i dont think it woukd slip as easily as the water pump (being smooth)

 

Ok if it started doing this as the temp got colder i would suspect water pump (my problem 2 years ago)

 

I found that some belts just tend to slip, even with proper tension, although a lot of people do have the belts tensioned poorly. If you do have the belt tensioned to the correct deflection (or tension meter reading), I wouldn't recommend adding any more tension as that would put a lot of extra stress on the bearings/bushings of the stuff being turned by the belt. I would try some belt dressing first (this used to be a very common procedure) and then if the belt doesn't "get a grip", I might consider changing it to a better quality belt. Before changing the belt, have a close look at how that belt sits on all the pulleys to see if one of the pulleys might be out of line - sometimes you can see this by looking at the belt edge to see if there's any noticeable wear on it.

 

Thanks for the advice.

The noise is embarrassing I have to fix it.

I looked closer at the belt and the power steering pump pulley looks like it is set back in more than the others. I am going to attempt to pull it out a little.
The parts store will loan me the puller. The parts store employee said he did not advise doing it. I can't see what it would hurt to pull it out a 1/4", but I will try 1/8" first to see if it works. The shaft is sticking out past the pulley.

I tried belt dressing and it did not work. It got a lot worse for 20 miles got quieter for 10 miles or so and then the sound got loud again.

If I spray water on the belt the sound goes away for a little while.
If I put a pair of vice grips on the tension pulley and add a little tension the sound gets worse. If I relieve a little tension the sound is still there but is a different sound. That makes me think the tension is correct and that is the third tension arm and pulley that makes the same sound.

I have gotten really fast at changing belts, pulleys, and tensioners.
I tried without success to get the fan off. It looks like I will need a strap wrench.

If the pulley adjustment does not work I will remove the fan and replace it with an electric fan. If that does not work I will replace the water pump.

Last Sunday I bought and have been running a $40 belt, the Gates micro v. It says it is better than OEM. But is the exact same belt that was on it before. It was quiet for 100 miles.

It will be the Sunday before I can get to it.

 

I also run the gates.

Stick a screw driver through the hole in the WP pulley an use a prybar to hold it against the alternator pulley, then use a crescent and turn the fan nut left. Should thread right off.

 

My fan was a PITA to get off too. I threaded 2 bolts into 2 of the 4 holes in the water pump and wedged a pry bar between. Then grabbed a crescent wrench, put it in the fan nut and smacked with a hammer.

Couple of good whacks and it broke free.

 

This is how i did it except i used a 36mm wrench. I've put together a little kit just for this task

Also... im wondering if the fan clutch could be causing a wobble that a new belt can handle, but wears the belts out fast. I've heard of people having problems with the fan clutch... dont remember off the top of my head what the symptoms were.

 

If your fan clutch is going bad it'll make a grinding noise when it first starts to spin and then quiet down. If its really bad you'll hear it often.

Also you should be able to spin it by hand with minimal resistance. If you spin it with enough force it should make a full rotation. If it moves a few inches with a lot of force its locking up and should replaced.

In your case I think it would a bad bearing in the clutch causing it to wobble. See if you can grab a fan blade and rock it back and forth.

 

Before I owned my truck, it had that same problem. I pretty much replaced all the stuff you did in the same order with no luck. I ended up fixing it with a new crankshaft pulley. I'm not really sure why that fixed it, but it definitely did.