Posting this up in case it helps anyone else.
I have been to figure out why my serpentine belt has been squeaking for the last 5 years. I have at one time or another replaced every belt driven accessory on the rig but still it squeaked. New belts, degreasing, new idler all to no avail.
So I searched and found some really old, like 2005 posts that talked about the harmonic balancer being the cause. This afternoon I grabbed a left over balancer from my Rambler stroker build and put it in with another new belt after doing another degreasing and scrubbing of the pulleys. No more squeaking. Once I got the old balance out it was apparent that the rubber between the inner and outer sections was in really bad shape, oozing out and badly cracked.
It was an easy fix. The puller just barely fit in between the lower radiator mount and the pulley even using the 4 inch bolts. This can be done without removing the radiator and would have been even easier if I had some 2 or 3 inch bolts (OK 50 or 75mm, I know its metric) laying around.
If your chasing a squeaky belt and nothing seems to work take a hard look at the balancer, changing out mine for a good used one fixed the problem for me.
John
I have been to figure out why my serpentine belt has been squeaking for the last 5 years. I have at one time or another replaced every belt driven accessory on the rig but still it squeaked. New belts, degreasing, new idler all to no avail.
So I searched and found some really old, like 2005 posts that talked about the harmonic balancer being the cause. This afternoon I grabbed a left over balancer from my Rambler stroker build and put it in with another new belt after doing another degreasing and scrubbing of the pulleys. No more squeaking. Once I got the old balance out it was apparent that the rubber between the inner and outer sections was in really bad shape, oozing out and badly cracked.
It was an easy fix. The puller just barely fit in between the lower radiator mount and the pulley even using the 4 inch bolts. This can be done without removing the radiator and would have been even easier if I had some 2 or 3 inch bolts (OK 50 or 75mm, I know its metric) laying around.
If your chasing a squeaky belt and nothing seems to work take a hard look at the balancer, changing out mine for a good used one fixed the problem for me.
John
