Hi all, I am new here and looking for help. A snowmobile forum was a great help with my 77 artic cat, and thought this may be a good way to see about my truck. Thanks to all, these forums are a great help to us nonmechanicaltypes.

My f150 (91, just over 100K miles)) is making noise. It sounds like a deisle truck, though when i first got it, it was very quiet. I brought it fishing yesterday and it is worse than ever, (I use it little, mostly for fishing and hauling stuff). It runs great, does not seem to have a loss of power or anything. I read in another thread that said to check the belts and pullies. Can i run the truck without the belt? For a few minutes to listen to it? (I am not a mechanic)

I used a rod to listen to the different pumps and pullies: the sound seems to be coming from the engine itself. (When i put the rod on the engine block it is noticably louder than on when placed on anything else)

(Later...) I took the belt off and the noise is gone. The power steering pump has some movement. Is that normal? It moves about an 1/8 inch in and out. When i do that it sounds suspiciously like the noise my truck makes...

Thanks to all who help with this, you are a true service to those of us who are not mechanics and would like to do it ourselves (or at least check it before bringing it in!).

B

 

If the noise is gone with the belt off, that certainly narrows it down. I would try and tighten the power steering pump up and try again with the belt on to see if that has solved your problem. I don't have any play in my pump on either my 4.9 or my 5.0.
Check all your other pulleys at the same time.
Let us know what happens.

BTW....Welcome to FTE!
You'll find lots of info and help here.
You can do some searching on the site as well as there is lots of info in past threads.

 

I did check all the other pullies and the only one that moves is the power steering. I noticed my tensioner pulley has a very small amount of play in it. It is very little movement, but under the pressure of the belt it might be the problem.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>
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I am not able to narrow down exactly where the noise is coming from. Seems to be too many other noises under there. I tried the rod to the ear thing, and it didn’t help. I’ll try later today, have to head out now. (55 degrees! Summer is here!) Still have 2 feet of snowL<o></o>
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Thanks for the tips; I’ll let you know what happens with it, probably tomorrow.
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B

 

You might throw me out for this, but the duct tape forum would probably let me join...

To isolate the specific pullies, i made separate belts with duct tape. I ran a "belt" to each item, (power steering, water, alternator and the other thing.) I wouldn't recommend driving this way, but it did the trick.

It was the "other thing". I didn't know what the heck it was, and my book (Haynes) only showed a picture of "Thermactor pivot bolt". It seems i need a new air pump. Unless i can duct tape it...

Thanks for the info, i will let you know if the air pump does the trick.

B