03 Cobra Supercharger belt mystery squeak

[ZeroSVT]

03 Cobra with stock lower cage/pulley and a 3.4 Whipple

When I remove the supercharger belt, the noise is not there. So I replaced the bearings in all of the remaining pulleys (8 bearings in total). Did not resolve the squeaking. I can turn the alternator by hand and it is very smooth so I doubt it is the culprit. That leaves the supercharger and the lower pulley. The noise seems to be coming from the lower side, so my money is on the lower pulley/cage. It is worse when cold, and goes away at idle when hot, only to come back when the RPM changes

Has anyone had one of these fail before?

Or anyone have any other ideas?

Here is a vid of the issue.
https://youtu.be/yFaSEV8Of3w

Cheers,
-Matt

EDIT:

I did a little more testing. Reducing tension on the belt tensioner with a breaker bar increases the squeaking, increasing the pressure helps a lot but does not eliminate the noise.

 

[Bigggy]

Try replacing the belt, what kind of belt are you running? On my car, the only one that is silent is a gatorback.

 

[ZeroSVT]

Try replacing the belt, what kind of belt are you running? On my car, the only one that is silent is a gatorback.

Not sure of brand but K080780

I'm going to get this one today ACDelco K080780HD Specialty Fleetrunner Heavy Duty and see if that helps.

 

[cj428mach]

Try a gatorback belt off rockauto. It'll be cheap and should get rid of the noise.

 

[MG0h3]

Ive noticed a belt squeal when the car is cold during the winter months. Never present during the warmer months. Seems to lessen when I drive the car regularly. Either way, it goes away after a few minutes.

A very simple test is dripping a small amount of water on the belt while it is making the noise. Ive never seen a bearing stop making noise from water, and they typically will make more noise when hot.

 

[ZeroSVT]

I will give the new belt a try tomorrow. I will try the water thing today.

-Matt

 

[31BCobra]

I just went through this over the course of like 6 months trying to fix it. Went through about 10 belts, changed all the bearings on the idlers and tensioner, adjusted alignment several times. Only thing that worked for me was switching to the Gatorback.

You can find them still sold as "gatorbacks" on some websites, on others they are now called Continental Poly-V belts.

 

[GodStang]

Your part number I think is a Gates. I had two or three gates that were super noisey. Switched to Gatorback and noise was gone!

 

[ZeroSVT]

Your part number I think is a Gates. I had two or three gates that were super noisey. Switched to Gatorback and noise was gone!

Damn,

Part number appears to be 4080780. If the greenback doesnt work, then I will switch to Gator.

-Matt

 

[Givens]

Damn,

Part number appears to be 4080780. If the greenback doesnt work, then I will switch to Gator.

-Matt

It will temporally fix the problem but it will come back, I've run lots of belts, the gatorback it the by far the quietest and longest lasting.

I have a 3.4 Whipple and I know how hard they are on belts mine ate the gates belts in about 500 miles.

 

[86gt5liter]

I went through the exact same thing a little over a month ago. I got new gates belt and still squealed. Ordered a gatorback off rockauto and has been good ever since.

 

[ZeroSVT]

Ended up being the dang belt. Weird that the other one looks like nothing is wrong with it.

The Gates is silent

Thanks all for the input!
-Matt