Mike,

Just wondering if you could be of any assistance on a pully install on the pullies I bought from you guys.

My first problem was with a bolt stud rubbing on the water pump pulley. My truck is a 05 and as far as I know this shouldn't have been a problem. Anyways I went and bought a grinder and grinded the bolt studd off. Now as far as I can tell all of the pullies turn freely but even after putting on a new belt I am getting a little bit of belt squeel on start up or when starting off from a stop like at a light. Some times while turning. Is this normal with the pullies? Thanks for any help.

Jason

 

get yourself a Gatorback belt, they're the best and it will fix the squeal

part# 4061020

 

Do you happen to know who sells these? Autozone doesn't list any belts for my truck I bought the only belt Napa has listed. Thanks

 

I got mine at AutoZone. The belt's 101" (I Think) but this part number is definately the right one # 4061020 Gatorback

Correction, 102" - 6 rib - 4061020 - 6PK2590

 

Cool thanks BTW what year is your truck?

 

2004

click my sig to take a peek

 

fright88 how did the truck run after you put these on, would you recommend doing them? Could you notice a difference?

 

Other than some very minor squeel the truck seems to be a bit more responsive. I am hoping to get a bit more thurough test drive this afternoon. I can tell you the install was a PITA. I ended up having to remove the fan shroud to get access to everything and had to buy a grinder to grind down a 2 inch or so bolt stud so the water pump pulley fit. Hoping the Gatorback belt will fix my squeeling problem. If not I am probably going to go back to stock. The truck feels great but I've spent about 200 bucks on tools just to do the job and spent 3 days on it. Make sure to have a backup belt when you do the install just in case. And have a grinder on hand. Also if you do install make sure to pull the washer from the harmonic balancer before using the pully puller.

 

Did you call Troyer? He would probably have some advise for you...

 

Yeah, it took me a while to realize the washer was there too. I also spent way too long getting the harmonic balancer bolt off because I didn't have an impact wrench. That is definitely important if you want to do this project right. Also, it would have been a whole lot easier if there had been 2 people.

 

Did you have a problem with the stock belt squeeling?

 

Hi fright & everyone,

First - Tech Support cannot be done here, that is against the rules for us to do that. If everyone will please read the bold, red text at the top of each page when you make a post, it clearly states NOT to try to get Tech Support, check on order status, or anything else that is of a nature that is between customer & vendor here on these boards - that is what the telephone is for.

That having been said, actually, this is not nearly as hard as it is made to sound here, though I admire fright's determination to work thru this!

This can simply be the result of someone who didn't have the required knowledge to instal FEAD pulleys jumping in unprepared - and I don't mean any offense by that, please understand.

It's not that hard, but you do need to realize what you are getting into, and I agree people should call us on this if they are nor sure, or want to get a feel for how this is done.

As it turns out in this case, this individual could have done this far cheaper letting his local Ford dealership do the install for him - or by simply using a breaker bar, an offset wrench and a file - there was no need to go out and spend hundreds of dollars for tools to do this, nor has *any* customer of ours in the past ever done so - and we've sold thousands of these sets of pulleys.

Also, never have we ever had to grind of any "2 inch bolt stud" from *anything* to install underdrive pulleys on ANY Ford modular engine in ANY FoMoCo vehicle - ever. And we've installed them hundreds of times. Now we*do* sometimes have to grind off a small bit of leftover casting flash (it's a little "rib" that is found on some of the timing covers and is simple to grind off) from the front engine cover about 1/3 of the time, and this is simple to do - it takes us all of 15 seconds with an air grinder, or can be done in maybe 3-4 minutes by hand with a simple file - it's not a big deal, we've done it both ways.

Last - yes, a stock belt will tend to squeal, but belt squeal is not any worse because of underdrive pulleys - that happens because the stock belt is low grade and has little grip on the pulleys, stock or aftermarket. This happens in about 30% of these vehicles in bone-stock trim! The rest of them will squeal the belt when doing a heavy throttle upshift with just our tuning installed, due to the higher power and quicker, firmer, tighter shift causing the stock low-grade belt to slip for just a second on the pulleys - this has been well known here for about 10 years now - but if you haven't been here a long time, you may not have seen us talk about that on here, and it's probably been a while since the last time we talked about this topic a bit here, I'd have to say. So I wonder if perhaps you may still have some interference between the water pump pulley and that casting flash, maybe?

You do not need a impact to remove the stock crankshaft bolt for example, that can easily be removed with a breaker bar and an offset wrench installed on a torque converter bolt, which takes all of 2 minutes, as there is only 75 lb/ft of torque on that bolt to begin with. Is it easier with an impact? Well yes, if you already have one and know how to use it when dealing with a crankshaft bolt.

Now you DO need to follow the instructions, and you need to use a proper pulley puller to press off the stock pulley - if you do not own one, they are cheap to buy, or can be rented in most places easily. And it's always a good idea to call us to go over what you will be getting involved if if you have never installed FEAD (front end accessory drive) pulleys before. That would have avoided problems by knowing up front what to do, or realizing that you're in over your head - unless, like this gentleman, you are determined to get it done yourself - which we admire!!!

Then you can also use a breaker bar (or *carefully* use an impact) to seat the new pulley on - then loosen the bolt and torque it to 75 lb/ft as per the factory spec with a torque wrench.

The bottom line is, this is not nearly as hard as it sounds, and I hope this post is a good reminder to all to CALL US if you are not experienced in installing the parts you purchase from us, so you will know what you are getting into and whether you really want to install them yourself - pulleys are not a big deal, but do involve a number of elements to do them right - we install them in maybe 30 minutes at worst, start to finish, and have done them in as little as 10 minutes here - but then we're used to doing it.

We hate to see anyone go thru all of this needlessly, especially such a nice gentleman as fright88 always is. So I hope a number of us will use this as an example to remember to call us if you are not sure, OK?

And thanks for all the hard work you went thru, Fright - and don't hesitate to call us if you want to go over any of this, OK? Thanks!

 

I don't take any offence. My install was more difficult than it should have been because I couldn't do as much as i would have liked to do. The pulley puller issue was my fault. I chose to buy a grinder to make the job faster. I can honestly say that either my truck is a freak with the bolt stud piece or I got the wrong pulleys. All this to say I don't regret buying them or installing myself. Yes I spent money on tools but they are tools that I have already utalized for other things.
The belt squeel was a bad part number list from Napa plain and simple. The belt they show as stock is 1 inch to long. A gatorback belt seems to have resolved that issue.

This whole thing has been in no way a bash on Mike or Troyer Performance. They are an awesome company with great customer service. I thought a post would be easier to get advice because of my work schedule. I apologize for breaking the rules.

BTW the bolt stuf in question is is below and towards the driver side of the front of the engine. Had I used a file I wouldn't have had to grind off so much but I took the stud down in about 5 min with a grinder. And the grinder couldn't get to the part that was rubbing without taking off the rest. A file would have been more manuverable