Calling for help!

1996GTKB · May 16, 2015

Alright everyone, I've done research here and the google universe as well before posting , hopefully I didn't miss anything.

I have a 1996 mustang with a kenne bell among other mods.
My blower is making an awful grinding sound, sounds like a bearing to me.

blower is still making the regular amount of boost and the oil does not smell burnt and isn't dis colored.

anyway I'm wondering if anyone here knows of a write up on changing the bearings or if they have done it themselves?

Thanks in advance guys and gals!

96blak54 · May 17, 2015

Uhm.....you might be flying solo with this one.

torch318 · May 17, 2015

https://jonbondperformance.com/
If you want to try it yourself they should have the parts you need or they could rebuild it for you.

1996GTKB · May 17, 2015

I'm trying to save some money or I would send it to someone. Kenne bell rebuilds their own superchargers as well but it is about $700.00 plus what ever it would be to ship from northern canada to the states. So not cheap lol

GregT94SCC · May 17, 2015

How many miles on it? Did you change the oil regularly? I've got about 20k on mine and it's still very quiet.

Witzy0070 · May 18, 2015

Yeah, with a grinding Kenne you're going to need a rebuild. I had a pulley with failed bearings that I thought a few months ago was my centrifugal. But if you're sure it's the Kenne making noise it's going to need some special treatment. You don't want it to fail on you. I can personally recommend Jon Bond as they rebuilt my head unit.

1996GTKB · May 18, 2015

Yes oil was changed very frequently. Almost once a weekend for awhile as the car was raced. It's got about 15,000km on it I'd say. Lately it's sat most of the time but I've been changing it about twice a year with about 500kms going on it a year. It's been garaged and babied.

1996GTKB · May 18, 2015

And by 500km a year I mean over the 4 - 5 months that the weather permits.

GregT94SCC · May 19, 2015

Did you check the idler pulley bearings? My 94 has a couple of them on the KB mount bracket to achieve enough belt wrap around the drive pulley. They are loaded in odd ways...

I'd imagine if you were grinding the drive gears in the blower you would see some metal in the oil.

1996GTKB · May 19, 2015

Ya no metal is visible, and I changed the idler pulley because it was getting worn out but it didn't help with the noise unfortunately

D3VST8R96GT · May 19, 2015

Pull the belt spin it by hand.

Any play going from clockwise to anticlockwise?

1996GTKB · May 19, 2015

I did that when I changed the idler pulley, no play really, and no real weird sounds being heard either. Like I can definitely hear it turning inside but nothing that sounds like the screws themselves are touching or anything. And no real friction can be felt, turns freely both ways.

GregT94SCC · May 19, 2015

Better yet, pull the belt and run the motor, is the noise still there? Can you swap back to the stock belt+routing and bypass the KB entirely?

D3VST8R96GT · May 19, 2015

Is it a single belt system?

Michael Plummer · May 20, 2015

Get a shorter belt and bypass the blower. This will definitely let you know if the noise is coming from the blower (as it was mentioned above). Once you're sure it's the blower, I would send it back to Kenne-Bell (start saving) before something breaks inside and sends a ton of debris thru your engine.

1996GTKB · May 30, 2015

So I decided to rip it apart myself. Was able to find a blown up type of diagram on how the thing is put together. Doesn't seem too bad. I'll let u guys know. And to answer the questions above, yes it's single belt and I already knew it was the blower. No need to run the motor without it.