Slipping Gatorbacks?
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 420
Likes: 9
From: Bow New Hampshire
Slipping Gatorbacks?
Replaced both belts with Gatorbacks last year, now after only 600miles I am getting a squeal while accelerating, it goes away after shifting then comes back while rowing through the gears. Cannot duplicate the noise by just revving the engine. No noise while just driving normally. The car has all new clutch and associated parts also about 600 miles ago. Balancer has small wobble but has remained the same for the past four years. Alternator is new billet style and quiet as are the other pumps. The engine runs smoothly with no other issues. Thoughts are that it could the waterpump bearing but I would think that it would leak. I'm going to change tensioners and idler and see what happens. I am reluctant to pull the belts and drive the car since it takes fairly decent acceleration to duplicate the issue. Your comments are welcome.
Thanks
Thanks
Team Owner
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 46,295
Likes: 2,596
From: Northern, VA
St. Jude Donor '15
"In honor of jpee"
Things I think about are: one pulley slightly out of alignment, water pump, HB, belt itself, contaminant on one pulley (oil, lube, coolant, water). Considering the replacements you made to components, slightly out of alignment jumps out to me. Of course, it could be one bad belt. Not sure how you test that other than with something that stretches it (durometer? there's got to be something else since that tests hardness). Do you still have your old belts? If so, can you put that one on and see if it squeals? That's one way to go; another is to take the belts off, and clean every pulley surface, the inside of the belts, and the hubs if exposed and replace. See if still does the squeaking.
Couple other things I hadn't thought of: PS pump, alternator bearing and idler pulley.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ts-on-ls3.html
Couple other things I hadn't thought of: PS pump, alternator bearing and idler pulley.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ts-on-ls3.html
Last edited by AORoads; Nov 1, 2015 at 07:01 AM.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 420
Likes: 9
From: Bow New Hampshire
Things I think about are: one pulley slightly out of alignment, water pump, HB, belt itself, contaminant on one pulley (oil, lube, coolant, water). Considering the replacements you made to components, slightly out of alignment jumps out to me. Of course, it could be one bad belt. Not sure how you test that other than with something that stretches it (durometer? there's got to be something else since that tests hardness). Do you still have your old belts? If so, can you put that one on and see if it squeals? That's one way to go; another is to take the belts off, and clean every pulley surface, the inside of the belts, and the hubs if exposed and replace. See if still does the squeaking.
Couple other things I hadn't thought of: PS pump, alternator bearing and idler pulley.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ts-on-ls3.html
Couple other things I hadn't thought of: PS pump, alternator bearing and idler pulley.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ts-on-ls3.html
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 420
Likes: 9
From: Bow New Hampshire
Here's an update, changed both tensioners and replaced belts which were new, checked all pulleys etc. Squeal was still there under acceleration but I noticed after driving for a while and getting things warmed up it seemed to go away. I'm at a loss to understand whats going on. I'll take a longer drive this week and try it again, maybe its just a cold weather thing (I hope).I taped the noise and will try and figure out how to upload it.
Race Director
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 16,667
Likes: 1,209
From: Raleigh, NC
St. Jude Donor '15
My truck made a light squeaky noise when it was cold, ended up being one of the idler bearings.. Or I guess it was anyways. I replaced all the pillows and idlers and it went away
Last edited by schpenxel; Nov 8, 2015 at 03:19 PM.
Thread Starter
Racer
Joined: Mar 2012
Posts: 420
Likes: 9
From: Bow New Hampshire
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