Some background:

1992 Volvo 240

Had a shop replace water pump, radiator, belts.

Driving great until this evening. Now when I give it gas I hear a "woosh" type of sound with it. Also the timing belt inside its little case at times will go: yelp, yelp, yelp during idle. Then stop then start again.

Any ideas where to start looking?

 

You start looking at the belts, the tensioner, the water pump may be... Get some Belt Lube or just soap and spray it on each belt one by one to see if the sound changes.

 

Well the more I listened to it it sounds like rubbing coming from the timing belt box. Maybe the belt, maybe that sprocket rubbing?

 

Could well be... But eliminate the other belts first, before opening up the timing belt cover. Sounds from belts can be very confusing.

 

Could be that the belt has not been centered on the pulleys and it's rubbing on one side against the plastic cover. You can remove the cover and see if there's rubber dust on the belt. The belt can be positioned without removing it, just push sidewise.

 

Well looks like belts are OK. All centered. I took it to the place where belts were put on and we listened again. The more we listened the more it sounded like it was less a belt noise and more of a bearing going bad. 3 of us sort of pinpointed it to the alternator area.

This seems like a fairly easy replacement that I can do. Any ideas who sells the best quality?

 

I certainly would not change the alternator based on that. At least take the belt(s) off, see what happens to the noise. Unless you wanna start throwing parts and money on a poorly diagnosed problem.

 

Conti (Continental) belts are the right belts to use..

the alternators are bosch, but rebuild quality is all over the place, I'd only get a rebuilt one from a reputable source that stands behind it, not cheapest-thing-you-can-find-on-fleabay/amazon...