squealing automotive belts

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NYBo

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Belt dressing on serpentine belts is a no-no

That's what I used to think until I found dressing that explicitly stated it was suitable for serpentine belts. Worked great, too. I don't remember the brand.
 

MTboatguy

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All of the major auto stores carry belt dressing that works on S belts
 

BlkY2k

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Harbor freight has the serp tool for a good price. If you take the belt loose you can spin the tensioner pully and see if the bearing is bad. From the sounds of it I would just replace the belts.
 

robert graham

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Update/Question....turns out the idler pulley for the multi-V fan belt has a warn bearing(still functioning for now) and causing some belt squeaking.....the problem is that this idler is a discontinued item and not to be found anywhere(and I've looked at lots of auto parts stores and GM dealerships).....My very resourceful mechanic suggests just replacing the belt, fan and idler pulley with a nice electric fan($300 total price) that would run constantly while the engine is on....this will be in addition to the auxiliary thermostatically controlled fan that's already on the car as part of the trailer towing package....seems O.K. to me but what do you experts think?....Thanks for any opinions before I get this work done....
 

robert graham

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Update/Question....turns out the idler pulley for the multi-V fan belt has a warn bearing(still functioning for now) and causing some belt squeaking.....the problem is that this idler is a discontinued item and not to be found anywhere(and I've looked at lots of auto parts stores and GM dealerships).....My very resourceful mechanic suggests just replacing the belt, fan and idler pulley with a nice electric fan($300 total price) that would run constantly while the engine is on....this will be in addition to the auxiliary thermostatically controlled fan that's already on the car as part of the trailer towing package....seems O.K. to me but what do you experts think?....Thanks for any opinions before I get this work done....

This is an update to my original post a few days ago....
 

MTboatguy

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I have ran full electric fan systems on some of my off road rigs, but I always end up going back to the belt drive, I find them to be far more reliable in the long run. The full electric set ups always failed at the worst time. Have you checked on ebay to see if you can find one of these idler pulley? I know when I can't find something in the store, I have always been able to find a replacement on ebay.
 

WIMUSKY

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Update/Question....turns out the idler pulley for the multi-V fan belt has a warn bearing(still functioning for now) and causing some belt squeaking.....the problem is that this idler is a discontinued item and not to be found anywhere(and I've looked at lots of auto parts stores and GM dealerships).....My very resourceful mechanic suggests just replacing the belt, fan and idler pulley with a nice electric fan($300 total price) that would run constantly while the engine is on....this will be in addition to the auxiliary thermostatically controlled fan that's already on the car as part of the trailer towing package....seems O.K. to me but what do you experts think?....Thanks for any opinions before I get this work done....

Junk yard? Electric fan would work fine too. Had them on various cars including my streetrod....
 

robert graham

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I have ran full electric fan systems on some of my off road rigs, but I always end up going back to the belt drive, I find them to be far more reliable in the long run. The full electric set ups always failed at the worst time. Have you checked on ebay to see if you can find one of these idler pulley? I know when I can't find something in the store, I have always been able to find a replacement on ebay.

E-bay might be an idea...I'm going to continue poking around some dealerships and parts store for a week or so. At least if the new main fan quits the automatic thermostatically controlled one would still provide some cooling?...
 

gm280

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Not seeing your pulleys myself and seeing if they are repairable, I can only make this suggestion. I recently changed both my Idler pulley AND the tensioner pulleys, and both had bearing issues, And I was able to press out the bearing and could have easily install another bearing. However I already bought and installed both pulleys before pressing out the bearing on one of them. So maybe you can press out the bearing and installing another bearing to make it work properly again. The bearing were standard and easily bought replacements. In fact the bearing was cheaper then the entire pulley. But they were already installed and running, so maybe next time... But if yours are serviceable, you could replace the bad bearing and use them again instead of going to some other setup. It would be cheaper too...
 

bruceb58

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What year is your Buick Road Disaster? :)
 
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bruceb58

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Rockauto.com has the parts showing up on their website. If the idler is a grooved one, it is a bit pricey but available.
 

dolluper

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To bad I just junked one of those with all brand new to lazy to pull off
 

robert graham

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Rockauto.com has the parts showing up on their website. If the idler is a grooved one, it is a bit pricey but available.

Bruce, Thanks for the Rock Auto idea but I'm unable to find my tensioner pulley, grooved metal part number 10186118 there. Several of the parts guys told me it was unique to the heavy duty cooling/trailer towing package and unavailable.....did you find it on the Rock Auto web site?....I'm not real strong on computer searches....
 

rbh

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If GM does not have a cross over number, maybe you can find the idler arm from something else and transfer over the pully
 

robert graham

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I've thought of just pressing out the old bearing and pressing in a new bearing....shouldn't be that hard to do.....but maybe there's problems with this idea?....
 

rbh

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I was going to say that but could not remember how the bearing and the tensioning spring tied together??

Could be a easy fix
 

MTboatguy

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I just did a search on ebay and found this, look at the picture and see if that is the one you are looking for:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/GM-OEM-Serpe...5dea3a&vxp=mtr

I do know, that often times, in looking at parts numbers there will be many different parts numbers for the same parts, depending on which division was using them.
 
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