supercharger belt squeal

[vmantoo]

First off let me say I am glad you guys started this forum. I have a 99 model vette that you guys supercharged. I am the second owner and the car has only 32,000 miles on it. I only drive it about 1 day a week( to a local cruise inn). I have put 3 serpentine belts on this thing. For some reason the belt starts to chirp, then squeal. I have narrowed it down to the ribbed side of the belt( can make it quiet with water or silicone spray). I have tried new tensioner and pulleys, this does not help. I just took the 7lb boost pulley off and put the 5lb one back on with a new Gates belt. So far the belt is quiet and I have not heard any chirps. I was just wondering if anyone had any input on why this happens. Could I have a bad 7lb pulley? I have also heard that the crankshaft pulley could be too wobbley and makeng the belt squeal. Any input is greatly appreciated.

[Ryan@Lingenfelter]

What diameter pulley did you put on it to stop the squeal? What may have happened is the pulley that you took off was changed after the car left our facility and in fact was not the proper size. If the belt was too long for this other pulley this may have caused this squeal.

[morepower101]

i have noticed a difference in belts and have found the gaterback belts seem to be a better belt with less chances of squealing. i would also check to see if your tensioner is in the middle of its travel if not this can cause the belt to slip because the tensioner is moving and not keeping the belt tight.

[vmantoo]

the car came with a 5lb pulley(original black) I ordered your optional 7lb(3.3dia. gold) pulley. I put the black 5lb pulley back on because I tried everything else, so far so good. The belt is the size you told me to use, same number gates as the original. It is not tension because when it would squeal I tried pulling the tensioner tighter and it did not change a thing. It has something to do with the grooves in the belt as it travels over the pulley or pulleys I can temporarily make a belt stop squealing by putting soap or silicone spray only on the ribbed side. The only thing that seems to work longer than 30 minutes is a new belt. If the belt that I put on with the 5lb pulley continues to do well then I guess it points a finger at the 7lb (3.3dia.gold) pulley. I will let everyone know if it stays quiet or starts squealing again. Thanks for the input. I am not sure of the diameter of the black 5lb pulley, maybe 3.8?

[vmantoo]

I might have located the problem. The inner diameter of the pulley where it goes on the shaft has a shiny area halfway in the width that is bigger in diameter than the gold area. It looks like it was machined bad. This will cause it to not run true on the shaft, and eat up the ribbed side of the serpentine belts. I took a picture but it is hard to see it is the inside where the color change is.