You say you tried the screwdriver trick. Dod you listen to anything else on the engine? Have you scoped out that power steering pump very first thing while the whine is doing it's thing?
Did you check the idler pulley for looseness when the belt was off?
One more thing...When was the last time you replaced your pcv vlave?

 

Been watching this one close because mine makes the same noise. I am about 95% sure it is my alternator to blame. How much will a new or reman alternator run a guy? Thanks.

 

jdpartsman I bought a remanufactured alt. at Autozone for 168.00 with core exchange. And when I installed it the whinning was worse than before, so I took it back to Autozone and they tested it and sure enough it had a bearing whine also. So I tried another reman. and did the same thing. Being furious at this time I returned it and went to the dealer and bought a new alt. for 300.00 minus my 25% discount for being a chrysler employee, installed it and my trucks quiet and has no more fricken whine!!!! Amen. The moral of this story is remanufactured parts are JUNK!!! Save yourself the hassle and buy new parts.

 

Thank you. Damn.....$300 for a new one! Not too shocking. I work for John Deere and some of our high output units are more then a grand!

Looks like I will be buying a new alternator soon. Thanks again.

 

Okay guys I may have the same problem... Or noise.. I would kind of describe mine as sounding like an electric motor kinda. I am used to the ol' chevy 350 sound and the HEMI just seems more.... high pitched? This could have something to do with the K&N CAI system? Just seems like the 350 sbc had more of a deep tone to it. But power steering... I have kinda called it that something in that system will be my first to go... Do you have to run a special power steering fluid in that??

 

My wifes 04 hemi does the same thing,sounds like a whine-tired electric motor sound, the noise is always there hot or cold but gets louder with acceleration or in park reving.I took off drive belt and the noise totally disapeared.My hunch was the power steering pump wich i replaced yesterday and the noise is still there.I spent an hour trying to localize this sound with no luck my next move is the alternater but dont want to throw money at this issue .if any of you had a whine-old electric motor sound and found the culprit please post results.thanks in advance.ps this truck also has the random stall issue once every couple of months.

 

@ Popstoy - Just a bit of an older thread here but if i were you i would invest a few measly dollars in a mechanics stethoscope and use that to probe and find the noise

 

yes an old thread maybe some of these guys solved their problem and never posted i trird for hour with stethascope everything sounds the same.alternater a little bit noisier.

 

My whine was caused by the alternator bearing going out at about 59K. I may have caused the issue by not covering it when I cleaned the engine.