Its no good goose

So I just left the mechanic, he thinks the pulleys are messed up. Quoted me like $300 to fix. Is this something I can do relatively easy?

 

Easy? yes.

Time consuming? Also yes.

Expect to have an immobile truck for a couple days if it's your first go round with such stuff. I recommend bookmarking the FSM over at TTORA as a reference.

 

Gotta try that; someday. Awesome!

 

So as I think about options to have avoided that, which would be a better investment: locker or hi lift to serve as winch? I've never been stuck before that. I can get a 60in hilift on Amazon for like $80, not sure about a locker. Based on where the truck was, do yall think a locking rear would have helped me?

 

Yeah it was bad. Water was less than 12 to 18 inches, forgot about the mud sinking. Looks like I'm not the first or last lol. It won't happen again.

 

I MIGHT have been able to drive it out but without snorkel I wasn't up for the potential hydro lock. If it wasn't my daily driver I may have a better story...

 

See post #12

They shouldn't be too hard to replace. Take your belt off and spin everything by hand. You should be able to tell which bearings are bad.

 

How will the bad one feel? And would this cause a whining sound when accelerating? It's almost like a supercharger pitched sound, gets more intense in the throttle.

 

I had that exact sound in my old mustang. It was cool because everyone thought it was supercharged. It was the alternator bearings that were toast. I waited so long that once the belt was off you could wiggle the pulley around.

When you spin the pulleys you shouldn't hear or feel any resistance. If you do, change it. If it feels "rough" when you spin it, change it.

Obviously if your alternator bearings are bad, you're going to have to replace it.

 

The mechanic said it was the idler pulleys? That there were 3 grouped around a tensioner assembly...

 

That's a good place to start. (It's also the cheapest place to start)

 

Well, I replaced two pulleys and changed the front diff. Still screeching like hell. Of course, without the belt attached there was no noise. Is it likely that I wore the fan out running under water that long? With the left side down lower is something else more likely?

 

if you can do it safely, you can place a long screwdriver on the (non-rotating part) fan and alternator and then place the handle end of the screwdriver to your ear.

The screech will be loudest from the offending device

 

Possibly the A/C compressor clutch, its bottom left. Does turning the A/C or defrost on change the noise?

 

man..that truck would have been a goner if it didnt get stuck right there..

 

Got the awful noise to go away by replacing allll the pulleys. Thanks for the help guys. Now I occasionally get a click instead of the engine starting when I turn the key. Why?

 

Starter contacts. Either replace the starter or replace the contacts.

 

i was stuck the same way you was about a 1 1/2 years ago, i had my truck for about 4 months off the lot. the water was over the headlights and coming in through the doors onto the floor board. the alternator wouldnt charge anymore due to being wet, when my buddies pulled me out they jumped me and all sorts of lights were on and the truck wouldnt stay running. I left the jumper cables attached to my buddies so that it charge mine, well i guess when the alternator dried out all the lights turned off and all was good except for i now had a brown carpet.

 

Do I get a cookie for the e-diagnosis?

 

x2 on the starter contacts. Clean them up really well, and if that doesn't help, replace them or the starter like stated.