Thought that myself too grumpy with the belt tensioner. When I first got it, it never had the spring for the tensioner to begin with. Checked all of that, took the guards off. Hung off the ratchet until I was satisfied that my miniscule amount of weight had moved it as far as the belt would allow so I'm fairly certain it wasn't belt squeal. I'm thinking it may be more an issue of the corks or the drive plate having some slightly high spots.
