pennys58

Make them stop!!! My car sounds like there are crickets under the hood. Is it the tensioner or the belt? If so is it hard to change it out? Thanks...it is giving me one hell of a headache!!
JOHN

shoebox

Remove the belt and see if the crickets still live. You might be able to spin the tensioner pulley by hand and tell if it is the cause (seems the most probable).

revtime

Could be either one, If the belt is good and everything is lined up right, I tend to blame the tensioner. BUT I have an underdrive crank pulley and changing the tensioner did not help nor any of the cheap belts (Gates, Dayco, etc) I finally sprung for a Goodyear Gatorback belt and all my "crickets" went away.

pennys58

Okay, I'll take off the belt in the morning. How much is the "gator" belt and the tensioner. I sure do hope that those are the problem.
JOHN

pennys58

Oh yeah...this probably sounds stupid...but which one is the tensioner? Sorry.

revtime

I think I paid 24 bucks or so for my Gatorback, the tensioner if I remember correctly was also from autozone and it was like 35 bux.
The tensioner will be the one you have to put a socket on and go to tighten(or loosen? one way or the other) it and it will move down to take tension off the belt. u will not really tighten or loosen it, just when you put the socket on there it will make the tensioner pull away from the belt so you can remove it.
The tensioner itself is the one next to the AC pulley.
Pretty easy to change really, I think like 3 bolts holds it on.

pennys58

Alright, thanks!!
JOHN

96TransamConvt

I had the exact same problem. After a cogged style belt my crickets were gone .. Simple job as well. If you're not sure what tensior to loosen there is a diagram on the plastic peice on top of the rad.

Good luck.