alternator/belt area noise..

1993 3.3


i hear it on alot of cars, and now mine.. Its that loud buzzing (sort of) noise.. coming from the alternator area/belt/pulleys... I thought it was my power steering pump originally, since i knew that was going, and i replaced it.. (which now, although it was bad.. i have to replace the rack)...... but, the noise is still there. When you start the car, you can hear it instantly... if you rev the engine, it gets louder as the RPMs get higher... When driving, as the rpms get higher... its louder.. then it shifts, and the sound lessens.. and then the process repeats for each shift. It sounds like its from the alternator, but it could be anything in that area... any ideas? thanks..

Could be the belt itself or one of the pulleys. You can check the belt by spraying a little silicon spray on the belt if the noise stops replace the belt.
One of the usual pulleys to go is the tensioner pulle, unfortunatly I don't know of a way to test that, maybe someone else will have other ideas.

Good luck,