Hi Steve,
Bad water pump bearings (bad ball bearings in general) sound like marbles
being swirled around in a tin can. It will eventually be quite audible even
at idle. The extra drag caused by bad water pump bearings can cause the
belts to squeal, but since in your case it comes and goes with the AC
compressor being on or off, I'd say it's more likely just old belts being
operated near or above their power transfer capacity.
Best regards,
Theo
PS The reason why they don't make V belts in a full V profile is that the
very thin point on the bottom would just get shredded under any kind of
load. It's also the point that gets distorted the most when you wrap the
belt around a pulley, and that distortion would quickly cause overheating of
the rest of the belt.
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