I have a 1989 F150 with the 300 6cyl. I have a terrible belt squeal. I replaced the tensioner pulley, nothing. Then I replaced the whole tensioner, nothing. Felt the water pump pulley and its tight, power steering seems to be pretty tight. The air pump seems to be tight as well. I can spin all these freely with the belt off and no noise seem to spin good. I got to the A/c Compressor and it seems to have a little noise but its hard for me to tell. Has anyone else had a similar problem? I have a bearing coming for the a/c compressor, that was alot cheaper than a new clutch assy. Any help would be great Thanks!!!

 

short dirty fix is go grab some hairspray and spray on the inner side of the belt as engine is running.....

or go spend 4 bucks on a can of belt dressing.....

how old is the belt itself ? does it squeal all the time, or just under acceleration ?

if you have a bearing going out on the ac, or alt, then it could be causing enough drag to cause the belt to slip, but not be readily apparent that its going bad

 

Dont waste your money on belt dressing.

My truck started squealing when the power steering pump was starting to go.

Does it sequel with AC on and off?

Try a gatorback belt and see if it fixes it.

 

The alt. is a new one (well a reman). The powersteering pump hasn't been changed since I've had the truck. I bought the truck in 2003 and put 80,000 miles on it. (has 180,000 now). The belt itself is probably a year or two old. The truck sat for approx year and a half. Should I try a new belt? Possibly go buy a ford belt. thanks

 

wow... first thing i wouldve done is changed the belt... then start throwing all those other parts on...

get a gatorback belt.. you won't be disappointed...

 

Forgot to add this. A/c doesn't work, so I unplugged the wiring to the compressor. The belt squeals all the time, acceleration or idling makes no difference. I have a 93 F150 that is squealing also but it gets worse wit acceleration and i have changed idler pulley and tensioner pulley. I swear these dang belt squeals are driving me nuts thanks

 

CHANGE THE BELTS FIRST!!!! they are the most common cause....

 

If the belt is cracked or the idler pulley has dark spots all over it, change the belt. You don't want that snapping off.

My boss let this happen in my work van. One day I told him the there's something causing the belt to drag and he said it was fine, before you know, 1 block from the jobsite and the belt sheared off. right before I had to turn a corner.

And the radiator blew up.

 

 

ITS THE BELT ITSELF! 80k and sitting for 2 years I'm surprised you haven't blown up the radiator yet!

 

Pull the old belt..........throw it away.
Clean all the pulleys with a fine wire brush and wipe clean with a dry, clean shop rag, use NO solvents!
Install a new Goodyear Gatorback or Motorcraft belt.
Listen to the quiet.

 

Wondering why that would happen?.

 

x2

 

Goodyear Gatorback belt fixed my belt-squeak problem.

I'll tell you a story of how a bad belt caused lots more damage - when I was in high school, one of my auto mechanics class buddies had a '73 Cutlass with a 455 engine. He was changing the oil in it during class one day and the teacher walked by and commented the ps pump belt was really ratty and he should change it. He said he would but he didn't have any money. The next day the car came to class being towed on a rope by his dad. It seems the night before he was drag racing some other guy, and while winding that 455 out in 1st gear, the ps belt broke and slapped over and cut the transmission cooler line. Running about 5000 rpm, the 400 trans pumped all the fluid out of the cut line, which dropped the trans out of gear and blew the motor, 2 rods through the block.

So keeps them belts changed!

 

changed the belts and surprised no more squeal. funny how that works. its always the simple things that get ya. Just put a new cyl. head on,first part of the year now she's ready to go. hopefully for another 180,000!