97 SHO Making A New Noise

[JimG]

Happy Friday all! I have a new noise on my 97 SHO and was hoping for feedback trying to identify what it may be. I've attached a short video file, hopefully you can hear the noise. I'm hoping it's just one of the pulleys and not cam related. I had the cams welded a few years ago; has anyone heard of cam sprocket issues after welding? I'm hoping this will be an easy, inexpensive issue. My wife says this is it, no more (even though she loves to drive it)! Any and all feedback appreciated!

Sorry, looks like video file is too large, will repost with a smaller file..

Youtube link added.

Thx Jim

 

[Blackdr16]

Sounds like something at the serpentine belt level. Welded cams should be good unless the welder did a poor job, do you have pics of the weld job when it was complete? This sounds more like a tensioner on its way out or one of the belt driven accessory / idler bearings.

 

[JimG]

Thanks! I was thinking one on the idler pulleys. The noise is fairly consistent so I thought I'd squirt some wd40 or similar on it tomorrow and se if I notice a big difference. No pics of the welded cams, wish I thought of that at the time!

 

[99sho-time]

get a long driver or something can rest on one of the pulley bolts listen like a stethoscope. sounds like a pulley to me

 

[stephen newberg]

I agree with the above. Sounds like an idler or such. The welds on the cam would have to be really, really bad to let go in a couple of years, and I think the sound would be different.

smn

 

[luigisho]

We've seen welds fail over the many years. Rare but happens. This does sound like accessory belt related sound to me on first listen. So a pulley or bearing of one is first guess. Other than noise, is there any difference in engine performance?

 

[JimG]

I started it up yesterday to to do some PD and within 30 seconds the pulley self destructed. Little bits all over the place It was the RH idler pulley. I'll add a pic when I take it out. Now to find a replacement part. I see lots of these pulleys listed on many auto parts websites. Wondering if this pulley is unique, or can I just replace with the same size? Can anyone point me to a part reference? Thanks for all the feedback.

 

[luigisho]

Go down the page until you see the belt/pulley diagram and you will see partial part numbers for each pulley or tensioner. Find which one is the broken one in the diagram and you should be mostly there. Do you need just the pulley or assembly with pulley?

Accessory Drive Belts

Does this one look correct? I haven't had a GenIII in a dozen years so I forget alot of specifics.

A/C Drive Belt Idler Pulley Motorcraft YS-228 fits 96-99 Ford Taurus 3.4L-V8 for sale online | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for A/C Drive Belt Idler Pulley Motorcraft YS-228 fits 96-99 Ford Taurus 3.4L-V8 at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

there are smooth pulleys listed on rock auto under belt drive with pics tensioner and idler pulleys

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

Luigisho, the part you pointing at is the tensionner for the waterpump on the otherside of the engine (different from Gen 2 to Gen 3).

But for the pulley, it's most probably the bearing who was faulty (a photo will help to understand). These bearing seems made from unobtainium now (hi-tech japanese double line of bearings with unique sizes). I searched a lot in the past to find some (3 for the pulleys and it seems that engine tensionner needs one too). The only thing that can help us is that the same ones on Gen1 and Gen2 SHO pulley.

The pulley (without his bearing) seems identical to the ones on SLO of the same years (lot easier to find).

 

[luigisho]

not sure if the links will take you there directly but are these viable replacements?

More Information for SKP SK89007

More Information for FOUR SEASONS 45979

 

[luigisho]

https://shosource.com/products/ols/products/v8-idler-pulley-96-99

they list a replacement pulley with bearing already assembled. Also indicate they have bearing replacement for DIY. You can contact them to make sure.

 

[JimG]

I've been having trouble loosening the bolt on the pulley but finally managed to free it today without rounding the head over. Then I ran into this situation (see pic). The bolt head hits the inner body/fender before it's all the way out of the threaded hole. Anyone run into this before? Any thoughts? It's close...can't be but one more thread to go before it's out.

 

[99sho-time]

The only way i saw to get around this was to zipped of the front motor mount bolt and jack up the engine with a piece of wood on the bottom of the oil pan.

 

[luigisho]

that is the first I've ever seen this. never had this issue with the one I used to own. The post above seems the only logical choice as you are close to the clearing the top of the fender so mounts decouple and jack up to clear. Not sure how else to replace the pulley and same size/length bolt.

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

Maybe by simply prying with a solid and long bar on the engine (push it on the driver side) will give you enough space to retreive the bolt...(?) But watch out where you put the bar and try this only with a good helper (4 hands job).

I must admit that I never saw anywhere something about a pulley falling apart but my mechanic said he can hear them a little bit on mine (+135k).

For the part numbers, I had to check in my archives. There are 2 numbers from NSK (Japan) :
BD20-15DWA (SHO original part number back in the '90)
BD20-15T12DD (new production)
I retreived this image from a small document from NSK (2002) to help understand the double row of bearings. According to this document, there is no unique position to put them on the engine (not asymetrical).

I will try to stay away from bearing with red sided bearings (four seasons ones) because IIRC, red ones were used on SLO (Vulcain and Duratech 3.0L). Will probably works but how much time...

During these searches, I also explored the possibility to make a maintenance on them. Some will do this in particular cases. I found a very good document for that : precise, step by step, which products to use for cleaning, etc. PM me if you need it. I didn't try this way however.

 

[99sho-time]

You can hear them running dry long before they go in most cases.
Are we able to get those bearings new from somwhere? i popped the seal off and jammed new grease in it after stripping the old dried grease out with mineral spirits. the seals are very hard to get back in. i didnt get mine back on perfectly but i highly doubt it matters packed with brand new grease atleast until i change my motor maybe around next summer. i havent had any issues and they dont make a peep even under hard driving.

 

[GEN 3 SHO FAN]

I searched a lot, even in specialized/industrials places and no one had them... (But I'm in Canada, maybe somewhere in US someone has them.) The only place where I was able to find them new was by a another canadian SHO owner who was selling his parts. At this point, doing maintenance on them could be a good solution.

You will probably laugh, my specialized document on bearing maintenance is for bearings on... skateboards. (When your life depends on bearings...)