Well I have been dealing with a belt that either chirps or out right screams for a while now. I thought it was the bearing going out on the A/C pump but I finally got the clutch to engage and the noise does not go away. Coated the belt real well with belt dressing and is was quite for a couple days. Tightened it as tight as I could get it (no easy task working by myself) and it ran ok for a week.

Today I was driving to work and about 5 miles down the road I hear the quiet chirp stop completely and a small tink sound under the hood. When I pulled away from the stop the steering was stiff and the volts were low so I knew I had lost the belt. Pulled into the nearest parking lot and popped the hood, turns out it just jumped off but didn't break. I pull out the tools and start putting it back on. While it is off I proceed to spin all the pulleys. Alternator turn easily but does make a little noise, A/C spins freely as does the power steering pump. I flick the fan with my hand, it turns maybe 1/8 to 1/4 turn on its own. Moving it by hand it feels quite stiff. With the belt off it felt more like trying to spin the fan clutch on a warm day with the belt on. I would have though that it would more or less spin freely once the belt was off.

Should I be looking at replacing the water pump?

I am not sure how stiff the bearing on that should be.

It is on a 2.5L. 1985 model. Original pump as far as I know.

What ever does not rotate freely is trashed, serpentine belt after the dressing application should be replaced & all the pulleys cleaned thoroughly. Belt dressing was invented by a 500 pound fat guy who was afraid of work, true story. Are you sure the harmonic balancer isn't coming apart?

I will check the harmonic balancer but I believe that was changed just before the previous owner parked it (for seven years before I bought it) so hopefully that is still good.

With the water pump being stiff I am guessing that is what is causing my problems. Gonna be tough changing that in the drive way when it wont even get above freezing the next couple days lol.

I wish this thing had the tension adjustment that is on the newer models where you have a tension screw at the power steering pump, would be much easier to get the belt tight. This one has the sliding points on the alternator mount and it is difficult to hold tension on the breaker bar and tighten the bolts which are hidden under the belt, and one you have to tighten from under the vehicle because it has a nut on the back side. Getting away from that was one positive move the engineers made

Either a pully alignment problem or a tension problem. Also never use belt dressing it damages the belt. Like I tell my students a belt isn't a salad and it doesn't need dressing!

My belt used to screech pretty loud and it ended up being the alternator. Of course it ended up dying on me 30 minutes away from home in the middle of winter at 1 am. Ask me how fun that was..

Either way though it would be a good idea to replace the water pump just for preventative measures.

Definitely planning to replace the water pump, as I am sure it should not have resistance to spinning like it has. It pumps and isn't leaking, but being it is 30 years old, there is probably some resistance in the bearings now.

Water pumps will have some resistance that is normal. They are a pump and when you spin them they try to move coolant thus the resistance.

I always thought that belt dressing was for the old flat belts on line-shaft pulleys in the old days (?) Is that where the fat lazy guy worked ??

No belt should need dressing.