So I am getting a funny noise out of what I assume to be my 1st gen supercharger.
I seem to be getting a bit of a squeaky/squealy noise from my engine in various gears when I am pulling lightly. It is only during mid RPMs and not at boost or high vacuum. Really only at around 0 boost.
I feel like it could be the nose drive, since I have noticed a tiny bit of oil leaking from the pulley bearing. I didn't think much of it until I just read on Gadget's supercharger maintenance page that ANY leakage from the nose drive is too much.
So here I am thinking I have neglected the s/c for so long that I am running it dry and I fried my nose drive and possibly the rotors as well.
I called Magnusen to get some advice and the sales guy said that if the rotors or rotor bearings were gone, it would make a rattle or grinding sound (mine does not). He goes on to say that it could be a squeaky pulley elsewhere on the engine being magnified by the supercharger belt.
Anyway, I have a message in with the guy who does the repair work to pick his brain.
I have 135K miles on the truck with the S/C being installed at birth by the dealer. The nose drive at least is due for maintenance. Should I send them the entire supercharger? Should I just buy a rebuild kit off ebay and just replace the oil and coupler? I really don't want to pay many hundreds for repair work if it is really not necessary.
Your advice would be appreciated.

 

I have heard a few instances where the nose drive gets noisy over time, but it'd be hard to decide if you should rebuild the nose or the whole blower from where I sit. Have someone just take a peek at it and try to narrow down the source of the noise before doing anything.

 

isolate the noise before you start repairing things. That way you're not throwing parts/ fixes at it.

 

Turns out the noise was most likely due to the AC compressor pulley.
Been driving with the AC off for a few days and the noise appears to have gone away.
That doesn't negate the fact that I have a nose drive that needs maintenance.
I think I will simply change the oil (PITA on a 1st gen blower) and hope for the best.

 

Just a follow-up in case anyone cares.
It turned out that my truck was almost a quart low on oil. After topping it off, it seems that the noise has gone away. The AC pulley didn't really have anything to do with it. The noise came back shortly after my previous post.
My truck never seemed to burn oil in the past, but maybe I had just been overlooking it.
So now the question is what the hell was squealing and did I damage it...

 

can u check the oil in the nosecone? or dont u have to take the whole sc off on the first gen sc's? how about power steering fluid? mine was a lil low and made a weird sound before.

 

The Nose cone rebuild looks easy enough. Here is a site with the parts you need.

http://www.rollingperformance.com/index.htm

 

Yes, you do have to take the entire s/c off in order to change the oil. Big PITA for me as it is my daily driver. I wonder if anyone has ever modified the nose cone in order to add a small oil filling port on the top (really the bottom) of the 1st gen s/c nose cones? It seems to me that it would only require a drilled and tapped hole big enough to fit a syringe hose through. Then again, you would have to pull it anyway in order to remove the chunks created in the machining operation.
I am definitely of the opinion that my noise was NOT coming from the s/c as it has not reappeared since I topped the engine oil off.