Tricks to finding a noisy bearing or belt

[WaterDR]

He was referring to black z, not you. He meant "the stethoscope is not always going to be the solution to your problem, and not worthy of ending the thread"

My bad....sorry.

[HerrKooled]

you'll be a certified M.D. mechanical doctor with your stethoscope ear piece and rod @ the end.

[WaterDR]

Most bearing noises dont chirp they whine or whirr

a bad belt has the chirping noise you describe. take the belt off and spin the accesories to see if you feel a roughness to any of them.

i would say a belt and make sure the tension is correct and adjusted right.

good luck

How do I adjust since the car has a tensioner? I do recall the belt being pretty tight and the tensioner was nearly at the stops. Does this sound normal to you? Since I have an after-market blower, I had to check with other peopel on the size, but I suppose we could have used too tight of a belt.

The old belt was very loose and I was under the impression that with a blower car you should really use the tightest belt possible that will fit to avoid slip.

Looks like any way I slice it, I need to pull the belt anyway and then turn the pullies.

[Akromix]

What belt are you running?

[Pauly]

Here is the history:

End of last winter, I installed a new tensioner and belt on my car (Stock 2V with Novi 2000). At first, everything was fine. Then, soon after, I was getting some noise. It was manageable at first, and goes away after the car gets warmed-up. Then, over time, it got louder, and the car would need to get hotter before the squeal/chip would go away.

Using belt dressing helps but only very temporarily. Using WD 40....helps, but only temporary. If I spray WD40 directly on the alternator bearing, the chirp goes away, but again, only temporary.

The car is in storage for the winter, but I would like to get it fixed. I just started it and let it run. I really can not tell if it is the alternator pulley, the belt, or some other pully.....perhaps even the new tensioner.

Anyone know how I can isolate the noise? I do not want to start replacing things randomly only to find that I did the wrong thing. I suspect a bearing.....

Too me it kind of sounds like you Isolated the noise.

[big block fiero]

The new tensioner may be running out of travel, the tensioner arm being at nearly the same position whether the belt is on or off so check this. Possibly this has happened because the new belt is a little longer then the old one was.
If one of the accessories has an unusual amount of rotational drag then this could be adding load to the belt and causing slippage. Next time the belt is off, give each accessory a spin by hand.
If the stethoscope doesnt work then try listening threw a vacuum hose and you may be able to unplug the stethoscope from its hose that goes to the amplifier and listen threw that.

[wiplash]

I vote belt. You say WD40 quiets it temporarily, try shooting it on the alternator bearing, wait for chirping again, then on the tensioner bearing, wait for chirping, then an idler bearing. I bet each time the chirp goes away because the WD40 mist is getting on the belt and changing the belt harmonics, and comes back after the WD40 has evaporated.

[dynotune]

sounds like a belt alignment problem- supecharger too far out/ in in relation to rest of components...

[WaterDR]

Thanks for all the input guys. I will probably just take it to a shop. I am sick of dicking with it.