Power Steering/Waterpump belt keeps snapping

[BrandonDSM]

Hey guys, I have a 1990 Eagle talon TSi AWD.

My problem is my power steering/water pump belt keeps snapping. This is the 3rd belt in the last 2 months. I always make sure my belts are on tight, but not over tight, and make sure they're on how they should be, they dont rub, right belt, blah blah blah. Now i did some searching, and i came up with two possible problems.

Leaking pump, and crank pulley seperating. My power steering pump leaks, but very minor. My car has about 239000 km's on it. So im also thinking its could be the pulley starting to seperate. When i first put a new belt on i get some minor squealing for about 30 seconds upon start up, but after that i dont get a thing. As this progresses, the sqeualing gets louder, and lasts a whole lot longer. Some times when i push the clutch in it stops squealing for a while, but it always comes back.

The car runs great and is my DD, so i need her in good condition. Changing the belt isnt hard or anything i can do it in less than 5 minutes now, but this is getting annoying.

Thanks,
Brandon.

 

[97gst_spyder]

If the power steering pump is anything like a 2g, then you need to make sure that when you pull back on the ps pump that its straight when you tighen it. I had an issue with the pump kept wanting to angle itself everytime I'd tighten the belt.

 

[96eclipzGsT]

Had the water pump pulleys off lately? Maybe you put them back on backwards.

 

[BrandonDSM]

Ok, now i feel really dunce about this, but this happend at 6:30 this morning, and i was tired and pissed off, as i hads to push my car to work, and today happens to be the first day of snow.

Its my ALTERNATOR/waterpump belt.

NOT my power steering waterpump

Sorry for the misinformation. I apologize.

 

[97gst_spyder]

If you look at the pullies do they look straight? You can use a ruler to check.

 

[BrandonDSM]

Yeah, everything is straight ive double checked everything. Alternator MAYBE has 1000k on it? Its brand new.

 

[1AWD90]

When you have the belt off turn your alt, water pump, power steering pump and make sure they all turn easy. Either one of them has the bearings going out which you probably cant hear over the screaming belt or your pulleys are full of rust and the belts slipping on them. Good luck

 

[BrandonDSM]

Will do. Thanks.

If i have i have to replace the pulley on the water pump, can i replace the pulley itself, or do i need a whole new water pump? Im pretty sure it wont be that pulley cause the water pump is fairly new, just wondering.

 

[1AWD90]

You can replace just the pulley but usually a good steal brush and some muscle or a grinding wheel with a steel brush on it can usually clean the rust up.

 

[BrandonDSM]

Ok thanks. I work at a chrysler dealership associated with 6 other ones and 2 are mitsu dealers, so parts for me are extremely inexpensive. My buddy has a talon as well, and we both needed alternators, he got his for like 130 retail where as i got mine for 50, just as an example.

 

[dannyd97gst]

Something like this happened to me right after my timing belt was replaced, the tech put my outer water pump pulley on backwardsWTF. Suprisingly enough the belt made no noise until it started fraying.

 

[BrandonDSM]

Well, I believe I fixed my problem, the bracket that holds the alternator was loose, when i went to loosen the asjustment bolt the alternator wiggled so i traced it back, and fixed my problem.

 

[johnmarines]

Glad you found the problem

 

[HecticVR4]

how tight should the belts be?

 

[gearhead37683]

i believe the repair manual will tell you how much belt deflection you should have.

 

[HecticVR4]

yea i suppose it would, but i dont have one

 

[Ibbanez]

Just dont over tighten. You should be able to press a little bit but not so much as to get any kind of slack. For the non techy version

 

[HecticVR4]

thanks dude