Squealing from belt/pulley?????

[2000XPLORERSPORT]

I got a 2000 explorer 4.0 ohv. for years i would get that dreaded high pitch sound from the belt. now sometimes it was just from getting wet from car wash etc..... then the tensioner went bad. it would get stuck in the out position and not give when you gave it gas. so it put too much tension on the belt and caused it to squeal. so i bought a new tensioner and belt. was fine for a couple months then the squeal was back. i thought the tensioner i just got was a faulty one, so i replaced it. the squeal still came & went. so i bought 1 more tensioner and i cleaned every pulley, and every fan blade while i had access to it. but it mostly just squeals when i first start it, then goes away. sometime it will make a little squeal while driving. i checked every pulley when i had the belt off and they all seemed fine. except the a/c compressor pulley. it had a little side to side play in it.

so i was thinking, since idon't use the a/c because i have a leak somewhere so the freon leaks out.

is there a shorter belt i can buy and bypass the a/c unit? it probably would cause the squeal to go away, plus i would think i would pick uo a few ponies by not having to spin the a/c pulley. now the a/c pulley spins really easy. but im sure bypassing it, i would get a few horsepower. plus hopefully the d*mn squeal!!!

so if anyone has some advise or know if there is a shorter belt i can get i would greatly appreciate it!!!

sorry for the long message, i just wanted to tell as much info as i could.

Thank you!

 

[Friborage]

Before you go chasing anything else I’d get a stethoscope and wait until the noise is happening, then listening to the pulleys with the scope to figure out exactly where it’s coming from. Some people use a long screwdriver and hold it up to your ear with a fist instead of buying a stethoscope, but the real thing will work better.

Be very careful of the moving parts while you’re doing this, especially the fan blades! They’ll be hard to see clearly when the motor is running.

It could be possible that when you’re taking the belt off, you’re readjusting the bearings in whatever bad pulley there may be, and it’s fine for awhile.

Also, as far as the AC compressor goes, if the AC isn’t turned on then the compressor clutch isn’t engaged and the pulley is just free-wheeling. It’s not driving anything, so it’s the same as just another idler or something.

Also make sure that there are no oil or coolant leaks dripping onto the belt, both of those will cause slippage.

Have you tried running the car for a minute or two with the belt off to make sure it’s not something internal?

Check all this stuff and let us know what you found.

 

[2000XPLORERSPORT]

Before you go chasing anything else I’d get a stethoscope and wait until the noise is happening, then listening to the pulleys with the scope to figure out exactly where it’s coming from. Some people use a long screwdriver and hold it up to your ear with a fist instead of buying a stethoscope, but the real thing will work better.

Be very careful of the moving parts while you’re doing this, especially the fan blades! They’ll be hard to see clearly when the motor is running.

It could be possible that when you’re taking the belt off, you’re readjusting the bearings in whatever bad pulley there may be, and it’s fine for awhile.

Also, as far as the AC compressor goes, if the AC isn’t turned on then the compressor clutch isn’t engaged and the pulley is just free-wheeling. It’s not driving anything, so it’s the same as just another idler or something.

Also make sure that there are no oil or coolant leaks dripping onto the belt, both of those will cause slippage.

Have you tried running the car for a minute or two with the belt off to make sure it’s not something internal?

Check all this stuff and let us know what you found.

Yea last time i had the belt off i spun each pulley, tensioner, etc.....And i checked if any of them would move side to side. If i remember correctly, the ac pulley had a little squel when i would turn it by hand. But yea, no leaks. I could try running it with belt off. I also saw a video of a guy that had the same sound pretty much as me. He took a spray bottle of water and when he sprayed it on the belt, the noise stopped. Thanks for the input! I'll keep ya posted.