Pulley squealing

[Rocky91890]

I know given the car has over 200k on it this to be expected but my crank pulley/alternator pulley squeals every time the car starts up from cold of more then 2 hours and once it goes away, which happens soon as i give it gas in neutral after it starts squealing once it hits idle revs for the next ten min or so it will squeal again. So im assuming I need to change the crank pulley and alternator or should i just try the alternator first as I have another one thats been sitting for 6 months...and if I have to go change the crank pulley any way of telling if one is "good" from a junk yard? as I really dont want to drop 140 on a new oem one.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[RonJ]

Start by tightening the alternator belt.

 

[X-aCuTiOnA]

its your tension ooorrr your belt has liquid/lube, which is causing it to slip. more likely the tention though.

 

[Rocky91890]

Belt wont go any tighter and squeals worse the looser it is. i took a clean towel wiped off the pulley and alternator pulley as well as wiped off the belt and still squeals

 

[JohnS.]

You don't want to tighten the belt TOO much. If you can barely push on the belt, that is WAY too tight. It should have about half an inch of play when you push on it and I think like a couple millimeters left and right.

If the tension is fine, it's more than likely worn and you need to get a new belt.

 

[Rocky91890]

I have the service manual the dealerships use the one thats like 4 inches thick and replaced the belt exactly how it says to in the book, tried it a little loser and a lil tighter as well to make sure as i did with the belt before, no matter what i do to it it still squeals. Is there any chance at all that it can be being caused by the crank pulley or the alternator.

And this is the only belt ran off of the crank pulley as the car came factory without ps or a/c

 

[RonJ]

If you remove the alternator belt and the noise goes away with the engine running, then the alternator is producing the noise. In this case, you should replace the alternator because it likely has a bad bearing.

 

[Rocky91890]

Ill try it out tomorrow after work.
thanks