Started up the 442 for the first time in awhile last weekend, noticed a whining sound coming from the engine bay. Thought maybe itc was because it was cold and had to warm up. Didn't take it out for a drive at all, just wanted to warn up the engine oil and run some gas through the lines. Stated he up again today, little warmer out, still whining sound. Sounds like it's coming from the belts but not entirely sure. Only things i have done in the past few months are changing out leaking heater control valve and put in s fuel filter between the fuel pump and carb. I did take the carb off and clean it up a bit, not sure if that is causing the noise. Any advice anyone has on trouble shooting tips I'd appreciate it.

 

Check your power steering fluid, it may have leaked out.

 

The two most likely sources of the noise are low PS fluid, as noted, or an alternator bearing going bad. If you can't locate the source, remove one belt at a time and run the engine. When the noise stops, you've found the problem.

 

Checked ps fluid, it was barely half way up the stick to the full when cold mark. Gonna add some more, might be a dumb question but is there a particular ps fluid i need to put in it?

 

Yes, the kind that says "Power Steering Fluid" on the bottle.

 

You can put a long handled tool on parts like the alternator and put the other end of the long handled tool to your ear and noise will be transmitted along the tool. If its a bad alt bearing youll know right away.

a screwdriver or a prybsr work well

usually in my car the whining comes from the passenger seat ....its nothing i can fix tho!

 

Use the Delco PS fluid or Dextron trans fluid. Do not use the clear crap or the general-purpose stuff from 7-11 or a will-fit parts store.
While your at it you might as well flush it. Buy a suction gun. Suck it down refill. Run it to op temp and repeat a couple of times. Run a couple of qts through it. Probably never been changed.

GM #19329448, aka Delco 10-5073 or equivalent thereof.
"The fluid recommended for these pumps and gearboxes is Automatic Transmission Fluid. Dextron III or Ford type F. This is what these units were designed for".
Words directly from Marty Preuss owner of PowerSteering.com. He bought out and was trained by "Chip".

If you need the pump or the box rebuilt:
Marty Preuss
PowerSteering.com
417.374.7627
607 W Kathryn St, Nixa, MO 65714

 

Picked up some prestone ps fluid, filled to fill line, started her up, still here the hear the whining. Gonna look at taking one belt off at a time, like joe suggested, see where the whine takes me. Also gonna look at doing the ps flush as well, can't hurt it any.

 

Just as an aside, in most cases during storage it's better to let the car sit than to start it up and let it just idle.

If you can post a video (with audio, of course) you'll stand a better chance of getting a positive ID on the noise. I'm putting my money on alternator, though. PS pump is more of a growl than a whine.

 

Attached few links to the video, not sure which one will work for everyone.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Hql...ew?usp=sharing

https://linksharing.samsungcloud.com/mJTvOgjOeJI8

Copy on letting it sit during the winter. It had been driven a few times, but def not as much as during the rest of the year.

 

Sorry, had to fix links above, they both should with now.... hopefully.

 

So the long handled tool doesn't help in that situation?

Oh dang, I'm being bad...

 

That doesn't sound like a power steering whine. It's difficult to tell what it is, though. One belt at a time sounds like a good idea. Good luck. Maybe post a video where you rev the engine a little, instead of just idling.

 

Sorry, I couldn't access either one to have a listen. Hopefully someone else will be able to. If not, Joe's plan of disconnecting belts one at a time and checking to see which one makes the noise go away is pretty sound.

 

Thanks for uploading it, site didn't recognize the mp4 video that i recorded so i had to find an alternate way to have everyone view the videos.

 

Is it a auto tran? Did you change the filter lately? If so the filter may be sucking air, it will whine. Also check make sure it is full of fluid.

 

@442Harv its a manual trans.

 

I hear an oscillation in the "whine." My $$ is on a bearing.

 

Bearing in the engine or bearing in the alternator?

 

My money is on a bearing in the alternator .But here I am posting on a A body issue when I told myself to stick to the fifties stuff.... Tedd

 

Yeah sorry, posting from my phone and it really screws my grammar up. So i started her up again, was gonna use a long screwdriver as mentioned above to see if the noise is coming off the alternator. I didn't really hear anything, but the more i looked the more it sounds like the whining sound is coming from the carb. When i rev the engine the whining increases with it. As mentioned above, i did remove the carb to clean it a month or two ago. No whining noise before. I hooked everything back up and didn't mess with the idle screws at all.

 

Removed alternator belt, started her up, still heard that whining noise. Reason i brought up carb is cuz i read somewhere that it might be a vacuum leak. Is there a way to loosen the ps belt? I don't see any brackets that slide to loosen and tighten it.

 

 

My money is on water pump bearing. When you have those belts loose, see if the pulleys wiggle side to side and top to bottom, just like checking wheel bearings. I know water pump bearings don't usually go before it leaks, but I have one on one of mine doing this now.

 

To me a water pump bearing sound is more of a chirp, like crickets. Wouldn't hurt to have another listen, though. Otherwise, keep taking off belts.

 

That may be more accurate, my Chevy is doing a whistling teakettle impersonation with its problem.

 

So removed the alternator belt, noise still there, removed the ac compressor belt, noise still there. Loosened the two bolts on the front of the ps brackets and i started to get a coolant leak. Not sure that was supposed to happened and my ps bracket didn't look like joes pic. Its a 455 vice 400, not sure if that makes a difference.

 

What happens if you push the clutch in? Any change?

are the carb bolts still snug?

 

All Olds PS pump brackets from 1968-1990 interchange. None of the PS pump bolts to the bracket have anything to do with coolant, so what exactly did you loosen?

 

You can run the engine briefly, when stone cold, without a water pump, to check it.

 

Here's a pic. Arrows point to each bolt that was loosened, only two. The second bolt (hard to see) is the lower front facing one. Once loosened i started to see drips of coolant coming from it. Tightened both of them back up and no more coolant leak.

So someone suggested making sure carb nuts are snug, grabbed torque wrench, set to 15lbs, went through all four, 3 of them were loose and had to be torqued down again. Fourth nut just spun, took bolt out and saw shavings on the thread. Pulled the carb and noticed the one hole had no threads left in it which means that bolt wasnt tightening down. Could this have caused the whining noise? Either way i have a edelbrock performer intake manifold I'm goingoing to put in, this just speeds up that timeline.

 

In your picture, both of those bolts are supposed to be studs with nuts on the outside holding the PSP bracket. That is why you are leaking coolant. See the drawing below.

 

A) that's a hack
B) why were you messing with those bolts anyway? That's not going to get the belt loosened.

 

So any reason any one could think of as to why I don't have stud in there? Were they drilled out and re-tapped with threads for bolts? Honestly, loosened up the bolts cuz I was trying to figure out how to loosen the belt. Wasn't sure which bolt was gonna do the trick. I wondered by my bracket didn't really look like the one joe posted a pic of, was looking for that bolts that allows the bracket to slide back and forth for loosening and tightening.

 

Because whoever changed the water pump last was clueless. Any other work done by that person should be suspect.

 

No, the original stud is threaded on both ends and has a nut in the middle. One end of the stud screws into the block until the nut tightens against the timing cover, then the bracket goes over the stud and a second nut tightens against the bracket.

Here's a pic from a timing set replacement thread:
https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums/small-blocks-3/350-underhood-restoration-c-cooling-timing-set-98803/page2/

 

I'm going to go with the "mechanic" who worked on the car didn't bother to actually look at the fasteners when he took them off and lost the correct ones. That's why it has a hardware store bolt and split lockwashers as spacers. I'm guessing that PS pump alignment is sketchy. You can buy kits with the correct water pump fasteners and the PS pump spacers.

 

Must have been the same guy who mounted the carburetor. You need to fix that, regardless of whether it's the cause of the noise.

 

You MIGHT want to recheck the location of that upper stud on the water pump...

 

I'm guessing the fella from that thread corrected it during reassembly.

This is the first picture I found, then changed it for the other one above as it showed the stud better:

https://classicoldsmobile.com/forums...​​