Smoke from new serpentine belt coming from behind the power steering pulley

60

Asked by dogger73 Jul 21, 2014 at 02:46 PM about the 1998 Dodge RAM 1500

Question type: Maintenance & Repair

1998 1500 5.2 -  Had to replace the serpentine belt that broke. Before putting on the new belt I checked that all the pulleys that can were moving freely. After putting on the new belt I had two odd things happen (1) the belt makes a loud sound like a bunch of crickets (2) There is smoke coming from the back side of the pulley for the power steering after about 1 minute of run time. Also the belt & pulley feel very hot. Took off the belt and checked the pulley & it turns freely in both directions, sprayed engine degreaser around there ( cold engine) and behind the pulley then rinsed off with water, put belt back on and have the same problem. Help!

4 Answers

60

Hi Tom - The belt is routed as shown in the diagram under the hood. Power steering fluid is correct & the tensioner appears to move free and have proper tension. This was never an issue before the belt broke. I wonder if they advanced auto guy gave me the correct belt, I had him double check it.

1 people found this helpful.
60

Update - Just keeps getting weirder (?) - This morning I had to move my truck across the yard around some corners so I removed the serpentine belt, rotated the power steering pulley freely around in both directions. Everything was dry ( degreased everything the other day) so I drove the truck and parked it & saw light smoke coming from around the power steering pulley again, but this time there was power steering fluid around the top of the power steering reservoir that had been dry just before I drove the truck without the belt.

1 people found this helpful.
25

Old power steering hose may have collapsed inside with debris now blocking the fluid flow. Resulting in fluid being pumped out of the reservoir.

1 people found this helpful.

The new mystery fluid is probably what's squirted out of the top of the reservoir cap vent or sides of the cap when you turned the wheel a couple times without the pump turning and could the smoke have been coming from exhaust manifold from the fluid squirting out of the top of the pump like a Ford would? If it is a type of pump with the big cap on the reservoir shoved inside the power steering pump like a 4.7 then nevermind I'm a moron because those are sealed systems the cap doesn't vent so you would have a steady stream of fluid and or are or you would have a part that exploded completely ...hope I saved more time that I wasted for you,Tom

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