Tensioner Pulley adjustment?

[Hegemone]

I have a pretty nasty squeal coming from the tensioner assembly, seems to be from the 'joint' rather then the pully. Just was wondering if there was any way to adjust this that would take care of the sqeal before I drop this $60 replacement in. Thanks.

[cmann250]

I'm pretty sure that they're not adjustable. I'd try and give it a shot of WD-40 or the like

[Hegemone]

I assumed the spring tension would be adjustable. Apparently I was incorrect. Thanks!

[delsilver]

Rather than WD 40 if you spray the belt with water and the squeal stops you need to replace the belt, if it still squeals then it is one of the components driven by the belt including the tensioner which as indicated above is not adjustable. DO NOT use belt dressing, took me an hour to clean up the residue when I mistakenly used it. If the water test dosen't quiet it pull the belt off and check the individual compnents for drag and the culprit should be obvious.
If nothing jumps out it is safe to fire the engine up for a couple minutes with the belt off to confirm it is not something not driven by the belt.
Hope this helps
Del

[firstgenjunkie]

i had my tensioner do that to me about a year ago. I think it was about 50 or 60 bucks to replace it. I went on down to Oreilley here locally. The Gates part #38157 is the same as NAPAs #NBH38157 . Gates #38157 was the one I picked up. It's caused no problems for me so far.

[bmoeller]

If by chance the fan hub bearing is bad, I bought my bearing at KW for about $100 LESS than Dodge.

Just make sure to get some synthetic grease. Need to pop the dust cover off the bearing with a pick, and add more grease. I got 5 more shots of grease into my new one. Hardly any in there from the factory. Stupid.

[TRENDZ]

I have a pretty nasty squeal coming from the tensioner assembly, seems to be from the 'joint' rather then the pully. Just was wondering if there was any way to adjust this that would take care of the sqeal before I drop this $60 replacement in. Thanks.

I just put one on mine. I tore the old one apart just to see what goes wrong inside. There is a plastic bushing between the stationary part and the spring loaded pivoting part. On mine, the bushing was worn through, and the two parts wore into eachother. This was causing binding and squeaking. Time for a new one.

[Hegemone]

Finally got around to getting it put on, didn't realize it needed a cummins tool. Has anyone used anything different? Thanks.

[PToombs]

Cummins tool for what? Changing it? It's a regular metric bolt that holds it on. To put the belt on just throw a breaker bar or ratchet on it and pull it back. Getting the belt lined up is fun, I use a tiedown strap to hold the ratchet while installing the belt. Or I just struggle with it.

[Hegemone]

Cummins tool for what? Changing it? It's a regular metric bolt that holds it on. To put the belt on just throw a breaker bar or ratchet on it and pull it back. Getting the belt lined up is fun, I use a tiedown strap to hold the ratchet while installing the belt. Or I just struggle with it.

Guess I'm wrong again- I was reading through some search results and they were talking about a tool that fits in the slots on the face. I know its something simple I'm looking past here but I'm used to just being able to rotate that bolt and having it relieve the tension, like on (gasp) chevys/fords. When I undo that bolt it doesn't change the tension on the belt at all. Is the tensioner just that shot? All the information my manual gives is "do not cut the belt off"

[PToombs]

The bolt holds the tensioner on. If you look at the face of the tensioner, it has either a 3/8 or 1/2" square hole in it. This is where you put in the breaker bar to pull the tensioner back to remove the belt. This isn't a ford /chevy.

[Hegemone]

Agh. I knew it was something stupid like that I was missing. Thanks

[Tacoclaw]

Yup, it's a 1/2" square hole. There's another one right above it that your breaker bar will fit into, but it'll break the sides out of it since it's not made to be used.

[PToombs]

No problem!
Levi, the older ones had a 3/8" hole.

[Tacoclaw]

My fancy DD Green pensioner has a big hole busted out of both sides of the upper hole where put the breaker bar on it. Don't bother with a breaker bar if you have a non-IC'd setup, just get a normal 1/2" ratchet and do some straining to get it on there.

I could use a Breaker Br easily until I put my upper hose on. Then I had to get ratchet to do it...