Truck is a Saleen S331

I installed my troyer kit (3.2" SC pulley) back in February. Shortly there after, I started getting a bad squeak. I thought I narrowed it down to a bad idler pulley bearing (with only 3000 miles on it). I replaced the pulley with a metco double bearing idler and replaced the belt with a gatorback.

2500 miles later, I started getting a bad noise on cold start up. I looked under the hood and saw my gatorback belt dancing back and forth on my supercharger pulley. I loosened the belt, put it back in the grooves, started the truck, and it still moved. I let it idle for a while and took it for a short drive. I popped the hood after the drive and let the truck idle and the belt was fine.

Soon there after, I got the squeak again. I took off my metco pulley and all of the grease was spun out of the bearings. So, I went and got a stock pulley from the parts store. I installed it and I still had a squeak. I deliberately broke my tensioner tab and put on a larger waterpump pulley thinking that the belt might be loose/slip. Mind you, I am still using the gatorback belt. This made the belt really tight. The truck ran awesome. I picked up some PSI, the squeak was gone, everything was great.

Fast forward about 250 miles...I start the truck and the gatorback belt is dancing all over the supercharger pulley again. I took the gatorback belt off and put the stock belt back on (they are the same length). I got a TERRIBLE squeak/squeal at idle.....and when giving it gas. The stock belt doesnt move on the sc pulley.

All pullies are lined up, the sc pulley is true, all pullies spin freely.

Can anyone shed ANY light as to what is going on here?

Summary:
-Stock belt squeaks and squeals...even at idle
-Gatorback belt doesnt squeal as much, but dances all over the SC pulley on cold start up
-I am on my third idler - but I dont think this is the problem. Newest idler has about 250 miles on it or less.

I am probably heading to Modular Powerhouse next weekend to see what they say. I am also going to pick up another stock belt tomorrow just to test it.

 

on my blown cars those dam cuts in the gator backs gave me hell! Try to get a gates belt from napa. They don't have any of the cuts in the belts and solved some of my problems. Do you have a lot of belt dust?

 

I might have some belt dust, who knows. I havent had a chance to swap out to a new belt yet. Its raining buckets here.

The original squeak, several months ago, started with the stock belt....with only 3000 miles on it.

 

When you look at the belt around the motor you should be able to notice a lot of black dust if it is slipping. Have you checked to see if you could run a smaller belt, pulled the belt book at the parts store? Not sure if they make one but that is ultimately what I had to do on my cobra with my YSi.

 

Troyer says the stock belt should be fine. By adding the larger waterpump pulley, it wrapped the belt around the SC pulley more. I had to break the tensioner tab to get enough slack in the belt to get it on. The belt is SUPER tight.

I am hoping that maybe the stock belt was slipping before and is worn a bit and I just need a new one. Who knows though....

 

i would take the belt off and start the truck to see if the noise is still there it will most likely go away then turn off truck and spin all the pullies that you can due to the very tightness of the belt you are likely wearing out bearings in your ilders which you will feel when you turn them try and let us know what you find

 

There is only one belt. It is not like the lightnings. I dont know if the truck would run at all with no belt?

Regardless, all pullies spin freely. I have put my stethescope on all of them and they all sound fine. The tightness of the belt woudl explain why/if the bearings are going out. However, that would not explain why the gatorback belt moves on the SC pulley and does not squeak, nor does it explain why, after going to a smaller SC pulley and essentially making the belt a tad looser, putting less stress on the pulley, why a bearing would go out with only 3500 miles on it.

 

the truck should run as there is no boost at idle but vacuum try it and see hopefully you will find out whats making the noise

 

I put a new Gates Micro V (stock) belt on today. I had to order from amazon since no parts stores around here had one. So far, no squeak and no skip. I let it idle for a good 5 min and gave it some good revs in neutral....I didnt hear anything at all.

I put my stethescope on all three idlers I have and they all sound the same.

 

Nice!!!

Let's hope this guy fixes it for good. Just say no to those gaterback belts on supercharged motors!!!

 

been trying to rack up as many miles as I can....still no issues.

 

Apparently, the aftermarket pulley that I have on my supercharger has its grooves thinner than a stock pulley. This causes the gatorback belt (with larger than stock raisesd areas) to ride on top of the pulley, rather than in the grooves. A friend of mine that is making a pulley setup gave me some measurements and I confirmed his findings with my own measurements.

Now that I am back to the stock belt, all is still fine.

I will be running a new MOSALEEN idler setup that significantly improves driveability and boost. I might try a gatorback with that new setup...just to see if it works. GOod thing gatorbacks are cheap on ebay!

 

Chirp is back. Same idler pulley. This is the third one I have had on there. When idling, if I put a little pressure on it, the chirp stops. I am beginning to think that the boss that the idler mounts to is out of round or something. There is a little wobble or play to every idler pulley I have had on there.