Ive read plenty of times that people running blowers throw their belts but at the moment Im NA and on the way down to my dads i threw the belt off my truck. Its a little podunk 2 lane highway for about 25 miles down there off the main road and people like to put along so of course whenever I get an open spot I like to pass. Only I passed a group and then let out quick to get back over into my lane and immediately lost power steering. Then noticed the alt wasnt charging and the ECT started creeping up. Damndest thing is it didnt make any really audible noise when it flew off.

I had been getting some belt squeek while out tuning when Id let off real quick but didnt think anything of it. I was planning on picking up an HD tensioner for when I throw the blower on anyway but just thought it was odd. My accessorie drive is all lined up Im sure. Ive also been getting some squeeking from a pulley but it goes away once the engine gets nice and warmed up. Cant really tell what pulley its coming from though. I know its a pulley or accessorie since it stopped when I pulled the belt. The waterpump, alternator, powersteering pump and tensioner are new. Only thing thats got some miles on it is the idleer pulley but I put a long extension on it while the drive was making noise and all I heard was normal bearing noise, no squeeking.

Oh and good thing my truck is 4wd, the front skidplate caught the belt so I didnt even have to get a new one

Either way it shouldnt be too hard to fix but just thought it was odd that I threw the belt without running a blower.

 

If I was you i would go buy a new belt today. Your belt probably looked fine but my experience has told me when you throw a belt it is almost always damaged in some way. I have put the same belt on after throwing it only for it to break the next day or later that week....buy a new one at least as a spare....and keep it in the truck.

 

the new HD tensioner will make a difference. The ONLY time I have ever thrown a belt is after a quick stab and release of the throttle.

 

get a can of wd-40 and spray the pullies one at a time.... that will narrow down the squeak pretty quick

have you ever replaced the ac belt tensioner?

 

Cant get to the idler pulley to spray it, I did spray some on the tensioner pulley spring and the actual bearing area. AC tensioner has less than a couple thousand miles and the ac belt was on when I pulled the main belt off and it was quiet. I need the HD tensioner for the radix anyway so Ill try that first.

 

samething happened to me a long time ago, the tensioner would squeek then go away, i would spray it every now and then, it would be fine for awhile then back to squeeking, then finally the belt flew off, sprayed again stopped the squeeks then the tensioner broke

 

I believe if the tensioner is too tight due to too small of a belt it will put more pressure on the bearings and cause them to squeek and or fail. I never lost a belt after the install of my HD belt tensioner....uh, until i broke it.

 

Take your belt off and physically with you hand feel which one has slop in it..No need is squirting anything.

 

I bought the cheapy belt when I upgraded to the 145amp alternator since the 105amp alternator has a different pulley location so I had to get a longer belt. I didnt want to spend the money on a nice belt since I knew in a month or two Id be putting the blower on.
Im not going to lie, Im lazy. I was busy that day when I had the belt off and didnt really spend much time messing with it. I posted this more-so just because I hadnt heard of any guys that dont have a blower throwing belts. Ill probably mess with it more I put the 34" radiator and efans on since itll be easier to access.

 

The bad part is the looser belt slips at WOT and the tight belt does not slip but at some point one of your pulleys will squeek......mine has been the tensioner pulley 100% of the time.