Primary belt tensioner

Have a constant whining noise when Landrover LR3 is running, gets louder with acceleration. I did a noise test on the primary belt tensioner and it seems to be the cause.

I finally removed the fan after numerous failed attempts. Used breaker bar with Atlantic British 36mm wrench and the water pump wrench holding it to keep from rotating in belt. Then removed the bolt from the tensioner, but it is not coming off as I expected.

Does anyone know whether I need to just pry it off, or does it have to be turned to a certain position to remove it?

I used a pry bar and it came loose. Pulley turns slow and is not free spinning. Tensioner spring seems to work fine. Removed and checked other tensioner on shorter secondary waterpump/fan belt, it spins freely . Both the belts seem without noticeable wear or deterioration. Removed rubber seals from pulleys and added some bearing grease to both, put the tensioners on and belts back on accessories, started it up and still had noise. Ordered a replacement pulley for the primary tensioner from O'Reilly's, as pulley was still sluggish even after adding grease. I hoped grease might make a difference, but it didn't.

Problem is fixed after putting a new pulley on the primary tensioner. No more high pitched whine drowning out the purr of the big V8!

5crows said:

Problem is fixed after putting a new pulley on the primary tensioner. No more high pitched whine drowning out the purr of the big V8!

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Working on Rover's back when they ran 3.5, 3.9 to 4.6 litre LR engines plus wrenching on the aluminum 215 Olds engines going back to the late 60's before LR received production rights producing these aluminum engines from GM. First rule ( V belt era), later with serpentine belt keeping an eye on the idler tension pulley bearings condition as they spin around twice crankshaft rpm speeds under load and high heat conditions with only factory sealed greased inside. Nothing to toy around with after inspecting two overheated and cooked LR engines due to the LR owners that kept driving to an exit, a third totally destroyed (welded) their engine making three future beer cans donors. Those that drove with a known idler or tensioner pulley bearing screaming then failed spitting off the serpentine belt leaving them stranded which been told "stranded to be rather common to LR owners". This judgement remark from a LR dealership service tech writer also a LR mechanic and personal friend. These aluminum engines go from normal operating temp to boiling and nearly destroying themselves within a minute once they spit off the belt driven water pump at 65 mph, music blasting away then then the mighty BOOM! Depending on the year and model many now running a plastic pulley (cheap crap) with bearing as an assembly replacement only. On the 95 D1 I know has a cast iron tension pulley, bearing held in place by a snap ring hence a quality bearing like a SKF or *** my replacements only. Why risk destroying an expensive engine over a cheap bearing that has done its job spinning thousands of miles makes no sense to me? I carry a spare $7.34 SKF bearing, always tools plus a good bright 12 volt trouble light. In under 30 minutes once an idler bearing is telling me by squealing i'm back up and driving again and not stranded. Failures occur when your 100 miles deep into the badlands of roaming old Ford's and no replacement parts.

BTW your "big V8" had me laughing, a big V8 begins around 500 cu/in (8.2 litres) range on up into the 840 cu/in (13.7 litres) zone where the fun Hp and Tq begins.....~~=o&o>.....

Congrats, @BeemerNut on logging the most worthless post of the day. Carry on...

Houm_WA said:

Congrats, @BeemerNut on logging the most worthless post of the day. Carry on...

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Your so welcome!