Mr.NiceGuy

Hello,

I have a 94 jeep Cherokee. And I had replaced the serpentine belt since the last one keep making that squeaking noise. But after the replaced belt I have no squeaks and noise but now my new problem is, it now keeps getting eaten away by the fan or the power steering pump or the alternator. It gets all tangled and cut.

I just finished cleaning out the tangled mess this is the 2nd belt i installed so its currently still on the engine. It starts but i am not ready to replace it just yet until I can find a solution to this.

Anyone know how to fix this issue? Thank you.

s346k

verify that all of your pullies are tight and not bent etc. then verify that the belt runs straight while the engine is running. if one of the pullies is not spaced properly it will pull or push the belt causing it to get eaten up.

Mr.NiceGuy

Thank for the reply @s346k. Everything seems to be tight. The belt seems to be straight now. I believe before when I first installed the belt it was more pushed to the front. But now looking at it. After it got eaten up a bit its now all pushed to the back of the pulley. Now could that have been the problem? It ate it self a bit while pushing its self back in the process?

Also how can I tell if the pulleys are spaced correctly? The only one I touched was the power steering pump on the far right. I am not to sure how to properly use the adjusters. I just loosen them up a bit to pull the belt off and the tighten once the new one was installed.

Mind you, I am more used to just getting a wrench on upper model vehicles and pushing down on the pulley to unloosen the belt. So this is a bit more newer to me on how to replace a belt and such. So adjusting pulleys is a bit foreign to me.

Thank you.

t.mcginley.jr

When you finished tightening the belt adjustment bolt, did you also tighten down the bolt holding the idler pulley to the bracket? The adjustment bolt just moves the idler pulley up or down to loosen/tighten the belt. The bolt going into the front of the idler needs to be tightened up too after adjusting the belt.

Could also be one of the pulleys loose or out of alignment like s346k said. Was the harmonic balance/crank pulley ever off?

EDIT: here's a pic of what I mean with the belt adjustment bolt:




The adjusting bolt loosens/tightens the belt, but the idler pulley bolt needs to be tightened down afterwards.

Mr.NiceGuy

Thanks for the reply @t.mcginley.jr. I will check it out when I get back from work. I will have to match the diagram your showing me cause I don't remember the side bolt and the bottom right bolt so I will have to match the picture.

Also I never took off the harmonic balance/crank pulley. I can show you a video of what I adjusted and we can see from there. I will post it later tonight when I get back from work. That way you can see what I am seeing and I will point out what I did exactly to take the belt off so you can get a better guess.


Thanks guys.

cruiser54

If your harmonic balancer is messed up, the outer part will move fore and aft causing this issue.

Doogluus88

Actually, on a 94 there is no adjuster on the idler pulley. All of the belt tightening is done with the power steering pump with the long adjuster bolt that's on its bracket.