Water pump pully cracked

So, tonight......something started ticking. Then it started squeaking. Then that turned into a tremendous squeal.

Apparently my water pump pully cracked. I've never seen nor heard of anything like this before!

Also, the belt is rubbing on the inside. It wasn't like that this morning, so it must have just happened when the water pump pully cracked.

I checked all of the other pullys, they seem to be all tight. Harmonic balancer looks to be fine too. The belt rides correctly on all pullys, but is offset on the water pump pully. I assume that's because it's cracked. What could have caused this? I'm including some pictures so you can take a look. I assume it just cracked due to age perhaps? I replaced the water pump a year ago (like, exactly a year ago.....maybe 2 days past a year!).

Also I am getting a little noise that sounds like power steering pump. I assume it's just the belt because it doesn't matter if I turn the steering wheel or not, it just gets a little louder when I raise the RPM's. I also assume it's related to the water pump pully.

So I suppose I'll just replace the pully. Take a look at my pics and see if you can find anything else wrong, because I can't. I'll also include video so you can hear the terrible squealing. I didn't think a crack pully would make so much noise, considering it's still spinning and all. Let me know what you think, I haven't torn into this one bit yet.

Water pump pully



Harmonic balancer


And, the video.

http://s20.photobucket.com/albums/b210/bbugaski/Automotive/?action=view&current=Squeal.flv

Well, I checked all of the other pullys......they are tight. Took this pully off the water pump and wow.....it was fuggin cracked all around! Got another one, seems to have solved the problem. Maybe I overtightened the bolts or something, I just tightened these until I cranked the engine this time (belt attached and tensioned)

Pic of the funny pully

hey now thats a pulley for the trophy pile lol.
:explosion

Hmmm...your first pictures and video arent working?

Glad you got it fixed though....

Yeah, I deleted them. The pics were of the pully still attached, and the video was of the tremendous squealing that the pully was giving me. Not sure why it was squealing, maybe it was rubbing the block since it was misaligned and cracked.

Sorry to bring up and old thread but how do I get the water pump pulley off? Do I need to get a pulley tool? I already took the belt off and now when I try to loosen the bolts the pulley just spins.

kdailey4315 said:

Sorry to bring up and old thread but how do I get the water pump pulley off? Do I need to get a pulley tool? I already took the belt off and now when I try to loosen the bolts the pulley just spins.

Click to expand...

Use a second box end wrench.

On the cracked pulley, just helped a friend replace one in his. Happened the same way, except he ate his belt on the freeway.

By the way, those Gatorback belts are worth the extra coin. Took all the noise out of my belt that was caused by slightly misaligned parts.

I think I had the belt overtightened too. Although I'm used to the belts being really tight on newer cars.

Get a ribbed belt tension gauge from NAPA. Part #NBHKR2. About $14 and worth it to get the right tension so you don't overtighten and damage bearings. Ditto on the Goodyear Gatorback belt. Like all belts, a new one will stretch and start to squeal, so it will need readjusting after a few days,