Greetings all,

1995 Jeep Cherokee XJ all stock. After my first post of moving a broken adjustment bolt, I put a new bolt on there. Tightened the belt too much that the new bolt snapped again!

No worries, have a new one again. Out of abundance of caution, I tightened the adjustment bolt first, the 3 bolts that hold on the steering pump (2 in back and one in front), then adjusted the adjusting bolt until it was tight, and the adjusting nut.

Problem now is that the belt is squealing because it is loose. I can see that it is loose since it is "flapping" as it moves down to the crank.

The belt is in the correct orientation.

Now I'm running out of ideas. I certainly don't want to break another adjusting bolt yet again, but it cannot tighten anymore, and neither can the other bolts. The original problem was that the idler pulley was shot (since replaced with OEM). Belt is new.

So the question is, how do you tighten the belt when all possible bolts are tight to begin with?

Thanks all!
10th

 

my old jeep had the pre 96 belt adjuster...I just don't remember what it looked like. if you could post a picture it would probably reset my memor

 

Thanks for the response. My 4.0 doesn't have the preadjuster (oh how I wish it did because this is a pain). You have to loosen the belt by the three bolts holding the P/S pump on in addition to the long "skinny bolt"/adjusting bolt.

 

Did you also loosen the bolt which holds the bracket where the adjusting bolts threads? Two bolts on the rear. One bolt at the pivot. One bolt at the bracket for the adjustment. Then tighten the bolt. Try that.

 

Looks like the bracket only had 3 bolts (2 front (screwing towards the rear of the engine) and 1 underneath). The 2 in front screwing towards the rear are 13mm and 15 mm heads. I didn't touch those. Which one should I loosen and try?

 

If you can't move the pump back and forth by hand, then you didn't get all the bolts. Get a Kriket II belt tension gauge so you know you're getting it tensioned correctly. It's $15, and will save you from overtightening the belt and nuking something more expensive to fix than the idler pulley like the alternator bearings. Poor man test for belt tension (that's not terribly accurate but better than nothing) is that you can twist it 1/4-turn in the middle of the longest span. Since you mentioned the belt is "flapping", have a good look at the harmonic balancer. It's the main pulley at the bottom and when the rubber starts to fail the outer ring will walk inward or outward and cause the belt to be misaligned. You have the correct belt and it's routed correctly, right? Just wondering if you're at the limits of adjustment because something else isn't right.

 

#5 hold the bracket where the adjusting screw is contained.
If I don't loose that, then I snap the adjusting bolts. Maybe I should use a different word than bracket. I'm not mention the large metal pieces that bolt to the block. I'm mentioning what is like a nut that stops along the slot where the adjusting bolt goes.

 

If you have no fault with the tensioning equipment, and run out of ability to tension, the belts are available in 5 or 10mm increments..fit a shorter one ?

On the '96, for instance, there is more than one size of belt..differences in the 95-97 transition

 

Never mind the gloves holding a bolt.
You can see all the places nut/bolts go on the power steering pump.

 

Greetings all I did not forget to post back. Once I have a second to try these ideas I'll let you know.

10th

 

moparpartsgiant.com/resource?t=d&s=l&r=AB690C35588EE91CD19FE701026754D E8A2CF91034C7A9AC50A9CF319FC0C2E3

 

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/bel...-4-0-a-130814/

 

That was an excellent link, Waynerd. Beat the hell out of my #5 and forgot to link the image.

 

All,

First I know I am a day late and a dollar short with replying back, but it turns out that the new belt is defective. I tried all of the ideas in this post, and had the belt tightened down properly with no "flapping". But I still had a squeal when there was proper tension on it. I then decided to try and put the old belt on for grins and giggles to see if I would still have a squeal with the proper tension. It does not. So, I only had about 17k on the old belt, and it is riding just fine, no noise, and the tension is fine. The other belt I'll hang on to as a spare since my CC company already refunded me.

Thanks all.

10th

 

My wife's 01 is picky. It will not take a gates belt without squealing. When all else fails, change the belt brand.