Well, I changed my belt because it looked bad on the front edge (lip was forming). I thought it was weird because the belt was changed with the new power steering pump less than 2 years ago (7K miles...yeah I hardly drive the truck. Always live close to work).

I changed the belt. Then, about a week later, I was romping on my truck. Flooring it to open her up (She rarely sees above 3K RPMs, wanted to flush some carbon). Well, I heard what I THOUGHT was pinging. Then the pinging got really bad and I stopped.

I thought my roller rockers broke off, but I was not getting missfires. I limped it 2 blocks home hearing the clanging noise at 20 MPH but there was no engine stumbling.

I popped the hood and noticed that my belt was shearing over the pulleys and there was about 3 ribs worth of rubber wrapped around my clutch fan. The pinging sound ended up being the fan blades hitting the rubber belt pieces hanging free on the shaft.

Inspected the pulleys and noticed the power steering pump pulley was not in proper alignment. When the truck was idling, the belt would move up to .5 inch along the water pump pulley.

I had the alignment fixed (warranty) and I inspected it again. Seems like the pulley is warped. There is no wobble but the pulley does not spin straight. Like it is a couple degrees warped.

Is it easy to replace just the pulley without taking the pump off?

Maybe this can help others who are eating belts...then blaming the belts. BTW, I run dayco belts.

 

There is a neat little tool to pull the pulley, you should be able to rent it at your local parts store. You should be able to do it on the truck in about 30 minutes or less. (need the installer tool as well, but, my guess is, both tools will come in a box.)

 

Ok, I was wondering if the tool to install and remove were the same as the ones that you use for aligning (Pull out and push in).

I can probably do that pretty fast. Although my alignment may be off. Might want to splurge for the 30 mins of labor to do that. better yet, it is probably covered under my extended warranty, so I will check into that.

I just took the warranty company for 1.4K with a new left hub and axle replacement. So I don;t want to call them again. They sent an inspector in for that, so I know they are getting pissed (got my post replaced last june as well). They spent about 2400 on a $1225 warranty I paid for.

 

Here it is....

 

Thanks guys!