3.8; 06 caravan

Hi. 9 mts ago, belt chirping. spun water pump by hand, so a small wobble. replaced pump thinking it would get rid of sound. sound actually got worse. put on a new belt. sound went away.

Now noise is back again. the wobble never went away after replacing pump.

did i get a bad replacement pump? I don't know. Was it my pulley for the pump all along i don't know. I put the old belt on it, there is a bad chirp. put on another belt, and chirp is less loud, but still there.

So should i replace a pump again? Or just the pulley. Or both?

I prefer just the pulley. I pulled pump and pulley out first time without dropping the motor mount. Pulled both out together. Can i get the pulley only out by dropping the mount without taking pump in unison?

 

I would try a new pulley, but i would take a look at the fan belt tensioner too. you could have a bad bearing. And if you have a idler pulley, i would check that too.

 

Thanks for response.

Is fan belt same name for tensioner? I don't see the tensioner slapping around. it seems constant. The idler pulley rolls smooth without restriction. i also ran stethoscope on it. no sound from that area.

Does anyone remember if you ever took the pulley off prior to removing the water pump. I rather put on pulley first and if all goes well then no need to remove water pump?

If i can put on pulley for it, that is if get lucky enough to remove pulley without pump then can i make a test for the chirping sound to be removed without the need to putting back the 3 motor mount bolts and lowering the van again?

 

as said like master. i look into the pully. not sure if yours is but theres another type pulley that you need special tool to remove as well. caint recall the name of it. but i expect all others pulleys that could be causing the ones u have to go out.

 

There is only one pulley type that i can ever saw on line to buy for that water pump.

 

opps sorry should said that better. the pully type i was referring to was to the tensioner. not the water pump sorry for the confusion.

 

just got back from under engine. removed 3 bolts on pulley off water pump. as you indicated try shimming. i inserted 3 lock washers behind the pulley where the pump contacts the pulley. made it worse. wonder if i should have tried flat washers instead? wonder if I should have tried only one washer as a shim and left the other 2 alone?

took out my old water pump that i removed 9 mts. ago because thought that was what was wobbling causing the chirping. i put in vice spun it. looked like it wasn't wobbling. my replacement wobbled also after putting it in. So, maybe its the pulley. God only knows. I think it is alignment though, because soon as squirting it with water chip leaves, loud chirp. grabbed tensioner pulley and idler not any play. belt is tight, so don't think it's tensioner.
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You shouldn't need to add washers to align the belt to the water pump pulley. Something else is causing the belt alignment problem. Maybe the water pump shaft is either to long or short. Did you buy the pump thru mopar?

 

Thanks for response. Is there a way to tell if the shaft is too long or too short, i.e. protruding or inserted to far? No i didn't buy mopar pump. i did buy the mopar pulley last night for the pump. didn't put it on yet.

i did keep the pump, mopar took off 9 mts ago because it was woppling and thought that maybe what is causing the chirp. yesterday i took out the old mopar, put it in vice and turned the mopar pump and eyeballed each of the 3 ears off one at a time with a reference pt. didn't seem to bad alignment. that is why i thought it was the pulley.

i still have guarantee on pump i bought 9 ths ago. i wish i could just put on pulley of the pump on car now and see if problem goes away without removing the pump/

any thoughts?

 

Ps--have you ever put on a new belt and found it defective?