supercharger pulley cage assembly

[exdeath]

Crank pulley that is.

Anyone have some info on this? Can you press out the bearing and replace it or are you better off getting a complete assembly?

I have a sporadic RPM varying noise that sounds like an idler ticking/rattling/chirping below 2500 RPM that persists with the belts off, and it occurred to me that the lower pulley assembly is still spinning without the belt and it has a bearing.

I've previously replaced all the inner idler and tensioner bearings and replaced the outer bearings with BF pulleys and the sound never went away (even though some of them were pretty gritty).

 

[exdeath]

So poked around at it again tonight while it was nice and cold. Cold weather makes all the noises easier to pinpoint. It's the blower, stethoscope finally picked it up, loudest at the bottom front edge of the blower case, right above the intercooler hoses. Previously I only checked at the snout and the back of the case and the top, but not the in between section where the front rotor bearings would be. Strangely it doesn't pick up anywhere else, just the bottom front.

Took the belt off and started it up to confirm and noise was gone.

Previously did this before and still had the noise, I think it was because last time I just revved the car from inside and the blower auto-rotated from engine vacuum or something, or maybe I just wasn't familiar with what was NORMAL noises at the time. This time I kept it running for a bit and revved it while keeping the blower from spinning and sure enough no noise no matter what. Put the belt back on and there it was again.

Definately confirmed it's at the front of the blower, which is a relief though. It's been doing it for a long time and hasn't gotten worse, not in danger of blowing up or anything. Nobody else, eg: NORMAL PEOPLE, could hear it and would think I was nuts. At least I know now it will go away when I get my twin screw or turbos and can breath a sigh of relief that I don't have to dig into the timing cover or something.

Yeah I demand perfection. One by one, identifying and eliminating every creak, rattle, squeak, tick, pop and clunk. This one has been haunting me for a while, sounds faintly like a cricket when it dashpots from 2500 to idle and so so faint, if not impossible to hear over normal noises. Previously I checked out many other things, EVAP purge solenoid, EGR solenoid, anything else that could make an annoying ticking-chirping noise.

But I won, and it will soon lose. *twitch*


Turbo is looking attractive... these engines are SO much quieter and smoother sounding without the 8 rib belt and it's 524 idlers.
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