CK5
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1974 K10 Dirty Sancho

Saved from cruel and unusual punishment
I have found that a quick shot of brakleen on the belt while it’s running will tell you if it’s a crappy belt issue. My big block that the blazer used to have in it had a squeak that I couldn’t get rid of until I bought a continental
“Conti-quiet” belt. Love it.
 
I have found that a quick shot of brakleen on the belt while it’s running will tell you if it’s a crappy belt issue. My big block that the blazer used to have in it had a squeak that I couldn’t get rid of until I bought a continental
“Conti-quiet” belt. Love it.

I always liked continental tires, I may give that a shot.
 
The new alternator is installed and the belt whine is louder than before. With the truck running I can release pressure on the tensioner and it quiets. I can also remove the belt completely and it's quiet. Using a piece of hose to my ear I'm unable to pinpoint the exact location of the noise. The two idlers and tensioner are new and I swapped in the old ones with no change. The PS pump, water pump and alternator are new. Previously (couple months back), when it started making noise I replaced the belt with a gates and it fixed the problem until recently.

Looking at the belt last night I noticed the smooth side of the belt had linear wear or maybe stretch marks? Not sure if that's normal or not however I can't remember seeing that before.
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Because I'm questioning everything I've done, here's the belt configuration diagram (top right w/o air pump and AC).
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The only other idea I've pondered is paint on the crank & power steering pulleys.

Any other suggestions or ideas are welcomed.
Is the tensioner a good brand?
I had issues before with tensioner that didn't hold tension steady and was squealing a lot.
Changed it and all was good
 
You can also try touching a bar of soap onto the belt while it's running. It used to work with V belts, at least. Obviously you would want to hit both sides on a serpentine belt, one at a time could help you find the problem side.
 
Is the tensioner a good brand?
I had issues before with tensioner that didn't hold tension steady and was squealing a lot.
Changed it and all was good

Delco IIRC and if I relieve some tension it quiets. I also installed the old tensioner and it’s still made noise.

You can also try touching a bar of soap onto the belt while it's running. It used to work with V belts, at least. Obviously you would want to hit both sides on a serpentine belt, one at a time could help you find the problem side.

I read that somewhere too.

After work I was unable to locate a quality belt at three different parts stores so I wire brushed and cleaned both pump pulleys and put some gasgacinch on the belt. Reinstalled the belt, fired the engine and it’s even louder now. Next I grabbed some brake clean and dribbled it slowly on the belt groves with the engine running and the squeak went away
momentarily until I reapplied brake clean.

This is such an annoying & stupid issue.
 
Delco IIRC and if I relieve some tension it quiets. I also installed the old tensioner and it’s still made noise.



I read that somewhere too.

After work I was unable to locate a quality belt at three different parts stores so I wire brushed and cleaned both pump pulleys and put some gasgacinch on the belt. Reinstalled the belt, fired the engine and it’s even louder now. Next I grabbed some brake clean and dribbled it slowly on the belt groves with the engine running and the squeak went away
momentarily until I reapplied brake clean.

This is such an annoying & stupid issue.
I feel your pain. I walked the same path. I was trying to remember where I got my belt from and it looks like now it’s called a continental “elite” instead of conti-quiet. But it’s hard to find
 
I feel your pain. I walked the same path. I was trying to remember where I got my belt from and it looks like now it’s called a continental “elite” instead of conti-quiet. But it’s hard to find

that’s the belt I was looking at online however I was trying to find it locally to avoid the 10-14 day delay.
 
Just a thought but what if the noise still being there when you swapped on the old idler is just verifying the new idler isn't working like it should. Meaning it's working just as good as an old, potentially worn out idler.

If you wanted to play around with it, you can get Gates belt tension testers on Amazon for less than $20. Trick might be figuring out what the number should be.
 
Just a thought but what if the noise still being there when you swapped on the old idler is just verifying the new idler isn't working like it should. Meaning it's working just as good as an old, potentially worn out idler.

If you wanted to play around with it, you can get Gates belt tension testers on Amazon for less than $20. Trick might be figuring out what the number should be.

I assume your talking about the tensioner applying incorrect pressure? Besides the tensioner, there’s two separate idlers. When I swapped out the tensioner and idlers for the used pieces that came with the engine, the belt was already squeaking and could have been damaged. I ordered a new napa belt (rebranded gates) yesterday so maybe I should grab another tensioner for $hits and grins.

New header gaskets were installed yesterday along with the new fuel filler neck. The fuel gauge still isn’t working after I double checked the ground at the tank.
 
Yeah, I meant tensioner. My trucks are v-belt so I'm not as quick with the correct terms. :D
 
Goodyear used to make a similar belt. They called it a gator back and it almost always silenced squeaky serp drive systems. I don't think they sell them anymore though.
 
Goodyear used to make a similar belt. They called it a gator back and it almost always silenced squeaky serp drive systems. I don't think they sell them anymore though.
Goodyear sold the rights of the gatorback to continental. Grab them now, because continental is going to discontinue them.
 
yep, Continental purchased a bunch of products that were engineered for goodyear. I found that out last week when I tried to source a gatorback belt.
 
Installed a new gates belt along with a new tensioner, still squeaks & whines. Ordered the continental elite poly-v belt with the cogs. Lots of positive feedback on these belts so hopefully this fixes the issue before I completely lose my mind.

View attachment 369437
I know I got that belt on one of our trucks, maybe two. And a continental timing belt and water pump kit on the kids Jetta. No complaints.
Good luck!
 
Did you get your new belt yet!?

Yep, and it’s the wrong belt design. They sent the standard Poly-V belt made by Continental rather than the Poly-V Elite. Oddly enough, the belt stopped making noise this morning after a quick blip of the throttle. Maybe it’s going to fix itself :dunno:
 
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