I had a squeak in my idler pulley on my 280. It got progressivley worse, and I purchased another pulley from Z barn. The fellow there said he was familiar with the problem and sold me a puley that he had instaled new bearings in. I put the pulley on a couple weeks back, much quieter.

Now that pulley is starting to squeak as well! But it is intermittent. I thought it might be related to temperature, but it seems to just be loud some days and not so loud on others.

Any ideas?

Are you 100% sure it's the pulley again?

Is it possible that your V-belt is just worn out. When V-belts are old and worn they have a tendonecy to squeak and or squeal. Also, if the alignment between pullies is off, it will speed up the process of wearing out a V-belt. Just some food for thought!

I dont speak 280 but one would assume that a squeek= resistance That =belt wear. Not to mention the re-flexing during your last replacement. First guess is check the belt tention as a test. If that works replace it. If it doesn't replace it. OPPS,sorry 240zx seems didnt see your post. If I had I would just have said I agree.

I speak fluent 280 but I think you are speaking 280ZX because there is no idler pulley under the hood of my 78.

EDIT: Okay I'm probably wrong. My car has aftermarket air. Maybe the ones with factory air have an idler pulley.

Thanks guys, I am leanign toward the belt itself now. I checked the tension , it seemed ok, but i tried both tightening and loosening it, and I still get intermitent squeak. The pulleys do not seem out of alignment with each other. I know because when I chaged out the old pulley it was slightly out of alignment.

The belt is somehwat worse for wear on the ends, probably because of the earlier misalignment. I will put a new belt on and see what happens!

deadflo, before you install the new belt, take a piece of 400 to 600 grit sandpaper to the belt wear surfaces on the pullies and knock off the shinny glaze. This will assist in a quiet running belt.

I speak fluent 280 but I think you are speaking 280ZX because there is no idler pulley under the hood of my 78.

EDIT: Okay I'm probably wrong. My car has aftermarket air. Maybe the ones with factory air have an idler pulley.

In 260 speak. Factory air had this installed.

dead flow easy way to see if its the belt , with car idling spray wd40 or other lubricant onto belt , the the noise immediately goes away there ya go its dry and worn out probably , use the little red straw for this and watch your fingers and don't wear a tie when doing this