I have been hearing screechy noises from my truck, I figured it was a loose belt or one of the pulley needed replacing. Once, I changed the belts and checked the pulley's I still hear the screech at idle and its quiet once I accelerate.

Later, I notice that the cause of the noise is the crank pulley. It is rhythmic to the movement of the crank pulley. Whats causing the pulley to move around?

1. Idle with sudden acceleration - clearly showing pulley being pulled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeuAoGhCvaI

2. Idle only - chirping sound is rhythmic to the pulley movement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VQWa4s9u4w

Is something loose? or my harmonic (crank pulley) needs to be replaced. Thanks, Harbir

 

I was googling around and noticed my issue might be similar to this person on youtube. But mine isnt this bad yet... or maybe my ALT,Fan,WP belt is keeping it from sliding :-))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G6UNOMSud0

 

Same problem I had. It's just the harmonic balancer/crank pulley going bad and separating. Like $10 at a junkyard which I recommend or $70 or so new.

BTW Fix it ASAP! Try to avoid driving on the highway with that thing until you get it fixed!

To replace I recommend you should always take off the radiator, so much easier & more room.
What I did was the starter method to bust off the crankshaft bolt(long breaker bar jammed against the frame with EFI fuse & coil plug pulled out!!), used a pulley puller I got from Harbor Freight, put new one on, & then to torque the crankshaft bolt on using a helper or buddy. What you do is get a chain wrench (like $10 also from Harbor Freight) like this:
while wrapping an old belt around the new pulley so the chain won't damage it while the other guy torques it down to ~116lbs/ft. Otherwise it'll just rotate and you won't be able to torque it down at all and you'll lose TDC. Btw I recommend blue loctite cause why not?
I've only done oil changes before this and it was really not that hard.. took me & my brother like 3hrs or so only. Oh and make sure its TDC before you remove your old pulley and retime it when you put on the new one....that is if you have the 22RE & not the 3.0 lol.

 

Thanks Vang50. I bought a new Harmonic Balancer from ebay .. I believe it was $40 bucks for DORMAN brand. Same part costs like $100 at autozone. Couldnt afford OEM at $350+.

I installed following your steps.. I didnt really put the engine in TDC before removing ... there is a D shaped metal bump on the crankshaft, I believe its called crank key. I slide the new one just like the old harmonic balancer. Put all the belts back and it runs amazingly smooth. All this time I had this noise and I had been living with it for 4-5 months.

Thanks for all you suggestions. Who so ever runs into the same problem, dont try to fix the harmonic balancer, just replace it and be done with it.

 

There's a woodruff key in the crankshaft that is there to set damper alignment specifically so you don't have to go to that trouble.