Ok, I recently replaced both belts on my '91 Accord. But I had the belts too tight so I backed them off a bit. Now, after a couple of weeks, I get a slight chirp when I start the car, and sometimes it squeals for about 30 seconds or so. More prevalent when it is cold in the mornings. I have tried to tighten them up, but it still chirps. I don't have all the belt tension tools to tell how many ft lbs of pressure I am pushing on the belts, nor do I have much experience with proper belt tightness. Heck, I can barely get my hand in there. Any ideas?

 

Probably one of your belts is a bit too loose. I found that my serpentine belt would do that when I had that squeal at startup after replacing the belt.

I would tighten the serpentine belt one turn on the adjuster nut (loosen the outside bolt on the bracket to do this). See if the problem gets better or completely goes away.

 

PA: my '91 has two drive belts, not one serpentine. Which one of the two do you think is chirping, the one over the alternator, or the one over the PS pump?

 

When I said the serpentine belt, I meant the one that goes around the alternator, a/c compressor.

You could also remove the PS belt and see if the problem goes away when you star to rule it out.

 

Well the alt belt needs to be pretty tight, we're talking "banjo string tight".
Pushing down hard you might move the belt 1/4" at the long part between Alt and crank pulley.
Right after start up the Alt is under a major load recharging the battery.
To prove it is not the P/S belt, turn the wheel as you start the engine.

 

Whoops, my bad. I thought serp as in the one on my Silverado. Um, Hondadude, I've never touched a banjo before, but I think I get your point. Right now I can grab the belt between the alternator and the a/c compressor and twist it not quite 90 degrees, so I'm betting that is the culprit. When I put the belts on originally, I tightened them to a point where I was hearing a sort of "rolling metallic" sound, which I thought was the bearings complaining. Is that what it should normally sound like? Thanks for your help, guys.