My 97 suddenly started making a loud screeching noise from one of the belts. I removed the serpentine belt, started the engine, and the noise was still there. Then I took the power steering belt off, started the engine, and the noise went away. I put the power steering belt back on, left it really loose, same noise. I tried tightening the belt in about five steps, making it progressively tighter after each step, until I had the tensioner at the end of its travel. As the belt got tighter, the squealing lessened some but the crankshaft pulley started making a moaning noise, and wobbling quite a bit. Spraying soapy water on the power steering belt quiets it down for a few seconds, then the noise comes back.

Can a worn out crankshaft pulley cause belt squeal? I'm at a loss as to what else it could be.

I replaced the power steering pump, thinking maybe it had a wobbly shaft or something. That was dumb. $150 and a lot of cursing for nothing.

 

yes

 

I'm gonna go out on a limb and say you have a broken crank pulley. Search and you will see it is a bit of a plague for the 4th gens. There is a Dorman replacement available from Auto Zone to advanced. I'm sure there are others available from other stores too.

 

yep, had that on my 3rd gen. crankshaft pulley went bad and i got a squeal

 

sounds like your crank pulley is about to fall apart. it's happening to a lot of 4th gens now. has happened to me.

 

OK, thanks everybody. I ordered a new pulley from rockauto.

 

After replacing the crankshaft pulley, the squeal is gone. I can't see anything wrong with the old pulley, though.

 

Not to steal your topic but I am having a simlar issue. I took off my pully once to get at something else and I broke one of the bolts. So now there is 2 bolts on it and that stuf broke off into the block

I know I can "drill" it out, but no way with that room. I am trying to figure out what to do, because my belt won't stop squeeeeeling and it is rerouted without the AC so I need a special size. ugh. I bet that bolt missing made it do a different tension. I am currently using like almost max tension and it still squeels, hell even the idle pully hits the arm sometimes. ugh.... I hate the way they made these. I suppose they are better then the ford spring loaded ones but I still think they are dumb.

 

The rubber bond between the inner and outer parts breaks and allows the outer to rotate or walk in or out. Over time the rubber would wear to the point that you could grab the outer and move it by hand.