99 B1500 van with 5.2l was about to leave on trip to colorado in this conversion van back the end of sept., but only made about 30 miles when we developed a load "clicking" (my wife said it was more of "chirping" sound to her) anywas pulled into a dodge dealer service dept and they checked it out and said the thought it was the belt idler, but as we left the dealer we started running hot (didn't spike, but 25-35% hotter than usual). we we went back to the house, shifted everything over the my tacoma and made our trip.
when we get back i checked the coolant level in radiator and it was down-low (i had checked all fluids the day before we tried going in the van and everything was as should be), but low she was. so i went to the parts house and bought (1) new waterpump, (2) new thermostate & gasket, (3) new bypass hose running from intake manifold to pump housing (4) new stationary indler pulley, (5) new spring loaded tension idler & pulley, (6) new dayco serpentine belt, (7) 1 gal. prestone coolant & 1 gal of 50-50 mix.
installed all the above with extra care cleaning all mating surfaces of old gasket material and/or sealants. cleaned all inlet/outlets with scotchbrite pad and then using vacuum to keep from any debris from getting in the system.
installed all components with torque wrench to specs given in chilton manual.
after reassmbly i still have a pretty pronounced noise in the belt driven components loop and i admit i'm stumped. the alternator bearings were fine, a/c compressor clutch as well, so with the new water pump and idlers that only leaves the p/s pump/pully and the main drive pully at the crank going round-de-round. what am i missing here?
any help or suggestions greatly appreciated. i'm 60 with a bum back (2 surguries and counting) and changing out the water pump was way, way more fun than i remembered-but , i got it done, and i'm game to fix whatever this is, but if i could zero in on the likely culprit and not have to spend too much time "looking" for the problem it sure would be nice.
sorry for the long-winded post, but wanted to give anybody looking into this matter a decent idea of what's gone one.
thanks to all
have a safe thanksgiving and holiday season.

 

Its sounds to me like you did everything I would done first. I have heard of harmonic balancers coming apart at the the rubber isolator making very strange noises (but have not heard of this happening with Magnum engines). Alternator bearings will usually chirp for awhile before failing and may not make any noises when spun freely (belt removed) . A/C clutch noise usually varies when you engage/disengage it.

Have you tried running the engine with the belt off just for a minute just to verify that it is for certain a belt-driven component?

 

no, haven't tried that yet blackvan. but, sure wouldn't hurt anything to try it. yeah, it would be typical for me to spend days working on it and then find out it was outside of being belt driven.

experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted.

 

I had an experience in which I went through 3 belt tensioners. The issue with the aftermarket ones is most of them use a round stop pin on the back of them. The mounting bracket actually has a rectangular slot. So the first two I bought had round a pin on the back. This would cause a clicking that would happen at idle and off the start. Also it would happen during deceleration. The only one I could find that had a rectangular pin was at Napa.

Good luck.

 

I have used a piece of simple plastic tubing (or a more expensive auto stethoscope) held to my ear to pin point the exact source of localized engine noises. Just hold the other end of the tubing to specific parts and listen for the noise at the end of the tubing close to your ear. Maybe 1/2 inch diameter tubing at max.

 

I know, these sounds are tricky. I would check the harmonic balancer ( also called vibration damper) . It happened to me years ago. You can go under and look at it. This part is made of two wheels, one inside the other, with rubber in between, the inner circle is attached to the crank shaft with a bolt, the outer circle is the one who drives the belt. better if you use a flash light. The rubber starts to come out unevenly, or in worse cases you'll see missing rubber. It is very thin, I'd say like 1/8" Other way to check is to dismount the belt from it and (engine OFF) try to move the OUTER wheel by hand. If you can move it, even a little bit,,,,time to change it. They have the extractor at auto parts stores for about $20.00

 

Make sure you are checking everything.
I had a 318 Ramcharger that was clicking and it ended up the crankshaft drive pulley bolted to the dampener was loose.
I found out the hard way when the pulley set came off at 65 MPH on the freeway 800 miles from home. Last 5/16 bolt sheared off. Bolts are too small to begin with!!
I thought I had tested the pulley by attempting to shake it with all the belts on and tensioned.
Of course it felt tight because the belts were holding it tight.
Now as a matter of yearly maintenance I verify all bolt on pulleys are bolted on.
I found out my 460 gaser powered F350 was also working loose.
With no load on a pulley make sure all bolts torqued to spec, as well as the dampener main bolt.
Make sure the bolts are not bottoming out because someone put them in the wrong position.
Unscrew the cooling fan from the wp and verify you still have the clicking.
Good luck! Some of the simplest crap is really a pain!

 

thanks for all the input. oleman i will definately be checking out those pulley bolts.

 

I would wager that Funair02 is correct about the belt tensioner. Buy a replacement at NAPA before you dig too much deeper.

 

Just curious, did you eventually track down the cause of the noise?