okay, v6 fiero has belt squeal. how do i properly deal with this without spending money?

Retighten belt after making sure alternator and water pump pullies spin freely with no bearing noise. If belt is more than 4 years old, time for a new one.

quote Originally posted by RWDPLZ: Retighten belt after making sure alternator and water pump pullies spin freely with no bearing noise. If belt is more than 4 years old, time for a new one.

everything is new, 150 miles new.

Most likely cheap belt or belt isn't tight enough.

Then it is not tight enough.

Buy Dodgerunner's auto belt tensioner. It'll be the best money you ever spent on your Fiero. Seriously.

Be sure the pulleys are clean! Belt will slip if tracking on dirty pulleys.

quote Originally posted by Patrick: Buy Dodgerunner's auto belt tensioner. It'll be the best money you ever spent on your Fiero. Seriously.

Yeah I've got to second this BIG TIME. Either Dodgerunner's or Rodney's idler pulley is one of THE best (and affordable) things you can buy for a V6 Fiero. It's a genius product for being so simple.

That way too you don't have to deal with what is eventually going to happen if you start fooling around with tightening the belt; you're very likely to over tighten it, causing strain on the water pump pulley and wearing it out.

Go to napa and buy a good belt and you won't have that problem any more

I also vote for Dodgerunner's auto belt tensioner. I know, it's spending money, but it's a really good investment. I put one on my '88 GT, really nice. Also, it "prevents" the possible alternator bracket failure, nice bonus.

quote Originally posted by steve308: Be sure the pulleys are clean! Belt will slip if tracking on dirty pulleys.

Yup.
+ Belt noise = "dead" belt. Once belt make noise, belt is worn and tighten it to make noise stop can eat alp/wp/etc bearings

New material for the belts seems worse for wear and noise when pulleys are "dirty" or out of alignment.

Also See my cave, serpent belt in general engine section.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave (It's also at the top and bottom of every forum page...)

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 06-20-2012).]

how do you tighten the belt? without buying things?
I'll look into a tensioner or idler pulley later but for now I want to make sure my fiero will survive a month or so before I start buying parts for it.

The big key on securing the alternator so it would not slip out of position was a star locking washer that I put between the bolt head and the alternator bracket. That simple little trick gives much more gripping power than just the bolt head alone. It has not slid out of position since I did this 6 years ago.

I also have Rodneys alternator reinfoircing bracket, cleaned my pulleys, and run with either a Goodyear Gatorback belt or a Dayco polycog belt. Have an assistant give you a hand applying tension to the alternator as you are tightening it up.

Good luck!

I installed a used Rodney Dickman piece offered in the Mall here. Real nice part. I would have purchased a good Dodgerunner part if it had come up for sale before I found this one. Either one of these are a sure thing to stop the squeel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[This message has been edited by josef644 (edited 06-21-2012).]

Check with your local GM dealer to see if they can get a factory AC Delco belt (not an AC Delco aftermarket belt. There is a difference). GM used an odd belt with regards to the angle of the “V” for the pulley grooves. They did this on Fiero’s, Camaro’s and Firebirds (I’m sure there are others but those are the ones I know about). Because the aftermarket belts don’t fit into the grooves properly they don’t get the same amount of surface area that the correct belts do so they squeal when cold. The aftermarket tentioners fix this problem by wrapping the belt around more of the pulleys thus restoring the surface area contact that the belt has on the pulley’s so they are good fixes (both work well). Heed Ogre’s warning about over tightening the belt. It can and will damage bearings and if you’re lucky it will only be the alternator (replacing the water pump is a pain in the butt).

There is an adjustment bolt on the bottom of the alt bracket.
loosen it off and slight the alt back to tighten the belt. trick is keeping the belt tight while tighting the bolt.
Use penetrating oil on the bolt and let it sit for abit. iv broken bolts trying to change out the alt.

That or try that spray belt dressing to stop squeeks. i dunno how good it is for your belt .

I used a C clamp to tighten the belt on my Formula. Just have to be careful not to over-do it : )

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/118981.html

Belt dressing only hides the problem for a couple of hours, save your money, do it right in the first place, ask me how I know.

Alternator tightening is so easy after I discovered this neat little trick. The tightening adjustment bolt threads into the CS alternator into a square boss and I simply used an open end 19-MM or 17-MM wrench to leverage tension on the belt. One person job to tighten.

This picture tells the whole story for you.

I couldn't seem to get Jetman's suggestion to work because the axle was in the way.
That's when I used the C clamp.

quote Originally posted by Timpilot: I couldn't seem to get Jetman's suggestion to work because the axle was in the way. That's when I used the C clamp.

Use a crow foot wrench, that'll work. Your idea is really slick too with the C-clamp.

The problem with a c-clamp is that it’s way too easy to over tighten. There is sometimes some debate on if it’s possible to over tighten but it is possible and can (and will) cause damage to either alternator or water pump bearings or both.

As of today, it's been 9 months since I used the C clamp to tighten the belt and it hasn't squeaked once. And I drive the car every day.

Another suggestion I never hear about... It's not a fix. But it will keep your belt from squeeling. It worked on both my 88s until one got a Dodgerunner pulley and the other got sold.

When you start the car and the belt starts to squeek...
Turn the car off and back on. Do it fast enough that you don't have to hit the starter again.
Think of it as just interrupting the power to the ignition for a split second.
The engine will shut off (really just stumble) and as soon as the key is back in the "run" position it will keep right on going, only without the belt squeel.

Remember "bumping" the starter with the key to nudge the engine over to find top dead center or for some other reason?
Same thing, only you're bumping the "off" position instead of the "start" position.

I don't know why this works. All I can figure is that there's some kind of switch in the computer that tells the alternator to generate higher amps for 20 seconds after the starter is engaged.
That's probably not what's really happening. Who knows? Give it a try.

Again, not a fix. But it's free. The Dodgerunner system is the way to go when you're ready to fix the problem.

Timpilot, if you’ve got the belt to tight the bearing damage won’t happen right way. I don’t know if your belt is too tight or not but if it is the bearings might last a year or two before they fail. My caution is that while you might have been able to get the belt properly tightened with a c-clamp but others might not and I’m guessing that you won’t be willing to go help them replace the water pump when it fails.

To others, I can’t get behind the c-clamp method unless you’ve also got a belt tensioning gauge to make sure you don’t over tighten the belt. My experience is that unless you happen to get the correct type of belt, which is next to impossible to get these days, the belt will squeal under certain conditions even if it’s at its correct tension. With that said, there are some areas where an incorrect belt, with the correct tension, won’t squeal. They generally squeal (slip) when they are cold and it’s moist or humid out so if you live in an area when it’s always warm and dry you may never get a belt that slips.

quote Originally posted by firejo24: ...if you live in an area when it’s always warm and dry you may never get a belt that slips.

Or if you live in a temperate rainforest like I do (and your Fiero is not garaged), the sound of a screeching belt at start-up gets old real fast!

quote Originally posted by Patrick: Buy Dodgerunner's auto belt tensioner. It'll be the best money you ever spent on your Fiero. Seriously.

So, Firejo, how do you keep from over-tightening the belt using an end-wrench on the alternator boss or using the pulley-spreader tool? I don't see how the C-clamp is any worse than either of those. The C-clamp leaves a hand free to check the tension (not calibrated, I know). And, the C-clamp leaves both hands free to tighten the alternator bolt when the tension is right.

Maybe my belt never squeals because I live in always-warm and dry Phoenix.

[This message has been edited by Timpilot (edited 06-28-2012).]

Well, how much belt "deflection" is there supposed to be?

With a box end wrench on the alternator you can feel how tight you’re getting the alternator. I don’t like the pulley-spreader because you have too much leverage and it’s hard to feel how tight things are. I don’t like any leverage tools where you can’t “feel” how much leverage you are applying unless you have a belt tension gauge.
Proper belt tension is 90lbs on a new belt and 65lbs on a used belt. This is measured using a belt tension measuring tool. Keep in mind that GM’s definition of “used” is a belt that has been tightened to new spec and rotated once. Unfortunately the proper amount of “deflection” is hard to define and comes with experience (I know that doesn’t help). But if you think about it, 65lbs on a belt that spans two pulleys that are 6” apart will have very different deflection than the same tension on a belt that spans two pulleys 12” apart. With that said, for a V-6 Fiero I’d use about ½ inch.