Jonathan Dyer

I recently began to have what appeared to be Opti related misfires. I had changed the Opti and water pump back in 2016 (AC Delco "remanufactured"). The water pump began to seep coolant from the weep hole after a short time. So, I was on borrowed time from the outset.

Since changing them both again the car starts and drives just fine but after about 4 minutes all the pulleys begin to squeal. Getting under the car I could see that there is a little over 1/8" of the crank hub that is nice and shiny indicating that I have not pressed it in all the way.
The hub itself is an ASP replacement piece with a keyway slot. I would usually be quick to blame inaccurate tolerance of the aftermarket part but I've had this on the car since that initial Opti replacement back in
2016 without issues.

I uninstalled and reinstalled a couple of times. I tried installing without the crank key in case it was shifting during the installation and creating an interferance with no luck. The hub slides on and off smoothly using the proper Kent Moore puller kit. I have made sure that the center pin is fully engaged within the crank snout before pressing the hub back on and that the inside of the hub itself is clean.
Eventually, the hub bottoms out to the point that the crank will begin to turn if the crank key is installed or the hub slips in relation to the crank if the key is not installed.

It's as though some debris got in behind the crank seal and is physically in the way (not that I can find).

Has anyone run into this before? Anything that I'm overlooking?
Thanks,
Jon

wlink14

As long as the balancer is not visibly out of alignment while looking down the other pulleys from the side, I would look at the tensioner

Jonathan Dyer

Thanks for your reply.
Actually, I forgot to put that in.
I thought that as well. So, I did in-fact change the tensioner and changed the belt while I was at it.No luck.

Jonathan Dyer

So.. feeling a little foolish .

After removing and reinstalling the hub / damper multiple times I wasn’t able to get anywhere.
I also thought that it was strange that the squeal would only start after 2-3 minutes of operation. Usually belts squeal straight away on startup.

I lost the hearing in my left ear a while back and no longer hear in stereo. So, pinpointing the location of sounds is simply not possible. . Every noise sounds like it’s coming from behind my right shoulder.

Anyway, I asked a mechanic to listen to the pulleys while I revved the engine . His response; “ the pulleys are fine you’ve got something going on under the car. “


Turns out when I recently reassembled the exhaust system I had added in some stainless steel spacers to the bracket that supports the exhaust at the transmission crossmember. As everything heated up and expanded the spacers started to shift and squeak and really did sound like a pulley failing.

After eliminating the spacers the noise is completely gone. Go figure…

Jon