Within the last week I started hearing a "whining or whirring" type noise when I start the car. It is very noticeable so when I had it at the dealer yesterday for another reason I had them check it out.

The tech said it's coming from one of the idler pulleys and is most likely a bearing going bad (these bearings have over 20k miles). He is pretty sure it's not coming from the blower itself (which is also my feeling). Has this happened to anyone else? I'm worried that this bad bearing is just going to lock up at one point and cause some real damage. The jackshaft pulley appears to be the one under the most stress since it's turning the cog belt but the smooth ilder pulley also has the belt wrapped all the way around it (see attached pic). Am I on the right track here?

I called Vortech and the pulleys with bearings included are pretty cheap... jackshaft pulley is $75 and each idler pulley is $34 so I'm only looking at $177 to replace all 4 pulleys. Now the question is, how difficult is it to replace these 4 pulleys myself?


PLEASE don't turn this into an off-topic'ing turbo vs. vortech vs. stillen thread ... I'm looking for advice from Vortech owners that may have run into this issue before.

This was also posted over at G35driver...

 

I would first pull the cog belt off and see if it still makes noise . Buying a new pulley will not help . The bearings are in the jackshaft not the pulley

 

Removing the cog belt will alleviate the drag on the jackshaft from spinning the supercharger impeller so I could at least factor out if the noise is coming direclty from the cog-side idler pulley and the supercharger itself. There won't be as much load on the jackshaft pulley but there will still be just as much tension from the drive belt.

Are you sure there is no bearing in the jackshaft pulley? That seems like a lot of stress from the drive belt on that pulley not to have a bearing inside that pulley. But I have not seen the jackshaft opened up so I'm just guessing here.

I may end up needing to remove each pulley to check each bearing which would suck...

 

There are NO bearing in the pulleys . Ive had them all off , I know . All the bearings are in the jackshaft assembly

 

Ok thanks, I figured you would know. I will start with taking off the cog belt and go from there.

Appreciate your help.

 

More than likely its just the normal brearing noise every one gets

 

Well I stopped by a shop today and listened to each pulley under a stethoscope and it is undoubtedly the top grooved idler that is making the noise. You could also tell that this pulley had somewhat of a "shimmy" to it as the bearing probably has play in it. The jackshaft was pretty quiet as was the smooth idler on the compressor side of the mount plate.

I think I will replace the 2 grooved and 1 smooth idler pulleys (w/new bearings) so they will all be fresh. I'm going to leave things alone on the supercharger side for now.

I'm kind of disappointed that bearings would only last ~21k miles but they're cheap to replace so I'm not as worried about it. I would tend to say that the tension placed on those pulleys is excessive in order to prevent slipping of the belt.

 

Yep...you have to keep the serp belt pretty tight and the bearings inside the jackshaft will go bad . There shouldnt be anything wrong with the pulley on the blower , nor any other pulley . Just the bearings inside the jackshaft

 

Hmmm that's weird because it didn't seem like the noise was coming from the jackshaft but actually the grooved idler pulley just down and to the left of it.

I guess I will replace those idler pulleys and see if the bearing noise goes away. After calling Vortech again, they were really surprised to hear that a bearing was going bad. The sales guy (Brian) mentioned that they have a car with 300k miles on a jackshaft with original bearings.

Another bonus is that Brian gave me a NAPA part number for the grooved idler pulley so I can pick it up on the way home!

 

Your confusing me now . I have had both pulleys off and I put a custom bigger cog pulley on , on the back side of the jackshaft , the one that turns the blower . And 3.12 , 2.87 pulleys on the from side of the jackshaft . The only bearings in the whole set up , are inside the jackshaft and inside the blower . I dont know where your hearing the noise at . But the only place it could be coming from is the jackshaft or the blower .
The pulleys Brian said you could get at NAPA , was it the serp pulley [ front side of the jackshaft ] or the cog pulley [ back side of the jackshaft ] ?????
And what is that part number ?

 

I'm not talking about the jackshaft at all. The noise is coming from the top grooved idler pulley, not the jackshaft pulley (look at the attachment in the first post which points out the grooved and smooth idler pulley and jackshaft pulley). Each of the idler pulleys has it's own bearing inside, I assume similar to a bearing for a skateboard or rollerblade wheel.

I already called NAPA to check on the grooved idler pulley part #209751 and they had one in stock. I asked him to check the pulley to verify if there was a bearing already in the pulley and he said yes.

Do you hear bearing noise on your setup as well? If so I would try the stethoscope trick (not a doctor type but a mechanic type - duh) and hold it up to each pulley while the engine is idling. For me it was very obvious which one was making noise and also had a little vibration most likely due to play in the bearing.

 

OHHHH ..ok ! I thought you was talking the other pulleys , not that one . Yes that one sould have bearing inside it . And Ive never heard of any one else say they have had problems with it .
Some people have called the cog pulley...an idler pulley , so I was confused

 

Well after replacing all 3 idler pullies on the front of the mounting plate the noise was still there. Next I removed the cog belt yet to hear the same loud whining noise. Luckily this meant that the supercharger assembly itself wasn't the culprit making the noise and left only one thing ... the jackshaft assembly.

I called Vortech this morning and ordered the 2 large bearings (p/n 7S250-200) for the "extended drive". They were only $15 each but I tacked on another $25 for 2nd day air shipping. Hopefully this will take care of the problem. Until then I will be driving N/A

I posted a video of the noise it's making but for some reason it won't play for me. It might still be encoding...
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/D...BCFD728006.htm

 

So anyone ever remove the jackshaft from their Vortech setup?

I've been able to get the bolt loose on the supercharger side. I just can't figure out how to get the bolt loose on drive belt side without somehow locking the shaft from spinning.

 

BeerViper:

I've read many of your post's. I am not a Vortech owner, however:

You have had a successful Vortech install and usage. I concur with
the use of the stethescope to target the offending bearing noise.
You have good life of belts, and know your system very well.

I attended a So Cal meet in late 04, and was taking many digital photo's
.
One G35sedan had the Vortech. I took a photo along the beltline (From Driver's side to the passanger side, and looked at the display. No this can't be right... The line was not very straight.
I went to the car we were showing, and pulled out a WalMart Aluminum Meter Rod (Yellow) Cost $2.00 U.S.D. I placed the Yard Stick down the belt line and asked my Machinist friend to EyeBall it. He said it was out 40 to 50 Thousands of an inch. And then he discribed the "Convergent Angle" was near 3 degrees. I asked him "Is that why the Mother ****er is so loud?" he said yes the plate is aluminum and the designer thought no one would tighten the belt to deform the 1/2 inch aluminum plate. He said he knew how to duplicate a plate that would not deform, but keep 0 degrees Crankshaft to Vortech SC Drive. The rest of his statement was not intellagable.

You might go buy a Walmart (Yellow) yardstick/meterstick and see how badly the SC mounting bracket is deformed. There are several websites that
allow you to put in the dimensions, and convert the distortion to the number of degrees the Blower device is off line the crankshaft line.

Cheers Amy -

 

Amy, thank you very much for your input. I will definitely look into this although I pray that this is not the problem. It is hard to believe that the mounting bracket could be deformed but with the stress applied anything is possible.

Would you happen to still have that picture of the beltline on that Sedan?

Hopefully once I replace the pulley's in the jackshaft the noise will be gone.

 

Amy Croft....I dont doubt you saw a warped bracket . But I have had my belt so tight that if you flicked it with your finger it....twanged ..... The sound of a rubber band when stretched and flicked . I guess it would be some thing to check , but I doubt it will be warped

 

I have not had any issue with that pulley whatsoever, actually I have very minimal sound coming from my vortech I did have to re-tighten my belt once and like booger stated it twangs when I flick it.
Maybe I need to keep a watchful ear for this as I just turned 41,000 miles on my setup.

 

I'm at about 21,000 on my setup which is why I can't figure out where the noise came from. If you watch (listen) to the video I posted you would know instantly if yours was making that same noise.

If I can get that jackshaft apart and replace the bearings I purchased from Vortech I am really hoping that will fix the problem... It's not going to be as simple as I hoped though as the bearings are pressed in and heat fitted into the jackshaft. First I need to get the pulley off from the grooved belt side which I'm going to try to use a "strap wrench" to hold the cog pulley in place while trying to break the bolt loose on the other side of the jackshaft.

I'm off to get my hands dirty ... wish me luck!

 

Well it took me a long time but it's done. The jackshaft bearing on the drive belt side was fried. The grease inside the bearing was almost completely gel but after seeing it apart and seeing how much stress that bearing must be under when the belt is tightened down it is no wonder...

I took a few interesting photos while I had everything apart but wish I would have taken more. I will post them up soon.