Looks like I'm having some weird problems with the 99 cherokee sport.

Thought I had my belt issue fixed as I had no more squeeling from the belt since I replaced the badly worn belt and tensioner pulley for good measure other than a couple squeeks here and there, usually at start up.

It was 32 degress tonight and took it for a ride.
immediately the belt started squeeling, sounded kinda like a bearing noise again and happened worse while accelerating from a stop or after making a turn, and seemed to subside after it shifted into second.
After about 5 minutes my (check gauges) light came on, and I noticed the alternator gauge was pegged to the lowest point like it was not working at all.
I immediately thought my alternator was toast but my lights were not going dim at all and all accessories working fine with no power loss it seems.

I sat idling for about 20 minutes while I waited to pick my kids up at their school.
During this time the belt noise seemed to go away and I did not notice any power loss so I did not shut the vehicle off-all other gauges fine, heater and radio working fine.

I picked the kids up and drove home with very little belt noise but Alt gauge still inop.

When I got home I shut it down and cranked it right back up- it cranked fine with plenty of juice and at this time the alternator gauge started working, and it took about 30 seconds to go from about 12-v to roughly 14-v.

I don"t know guys, this one is weird, but hopefully this is a common problem that has a easy fix.

I am going to cinch the belt a bit tighter because I did notice some significant stretch to the brand new belt when I checked it earlier in the day after replacing the front hub assembly.

When I first took off with the belt squeeling , another thing I noticed is that it almost sounded not only like a bearing noise but also fluid not being pumped properly like fluid was sloshing through a line sporadically and did notice some hop in the steering wheel while turning so my mind is also wondering if the power steering pump may have had a hard time pumping with the belt slipping- then I had the issue with the alt gauge too.

I am going to cinch the belt tighter and see what happens, but look forward to any input y'all might have.

I will carry my multimeter with me also in case this happens again so I can make sure the battery is charging even if the gauge is inop.

I think I might also mention it seems I may have a bad neutral safety switch also as it won't start in park at times but will start every time in neutral.

I told you this is weird stuff.
I guess this is just part of buying a used vehicle that needs some TLC.

 

Bump

 

Be sure belt is tight. The 4.0 belt needs to be pretty darn tight to be efficient and stay quiet. A bit of belt stretch is not at all uncommon after installing a new belt. I have had to retighten every belt I have put on my 99 4.0 now, and that is 3 of them.

Verify what you are seeing on your dash gauge with a meter. Easy to do with that meter that is in your car.

If belt is tight and alternator output is verified low, alternator is most likely failing.

You have correctly diagnosed your NSS problem. I always recommend trying to "refurbish" it before replacing it. New ones are about $250 at a dealer and about $150 at Team Cherokee. Here is a link to refurbishing it. Good article.

http://bc4x4.com/tech/2010/jeep-neut...ty-switch-nss/

 

i had this very same problem yesterday...on the way home from a fire run. the road had not been plowed and 4 hi definately worked wonders. i hit a drift that came up to atleast my bumper and heard a minor squeal and the check gauge light came on. noticed the volt gauge dropped to zero. i thought i either fried my alternator or i threw a belt.
got home, shut it down and inspected it....fired it back up to test the alternator and everything was back to normal.
maybe belt slip triggers a safe mode or something???

 

Yep, I appreciate the reply.

I will tighten the belt today and I am going to drive around with my extra set of Fluke meter leads doubled up and running inside the vehicle to see if my meter meets the same values as my gauge does granted it acts up again-that way I won't have to step outside the vehicle.

I am all for refurbishing the Neutral safety Switch-I'm glad it can be done as some are sealed and tamper proof to the point that you have to destroy them to open them up.

I was also thinking like the last post that a badly slipping belt might cause a failsafe that causes to volt gauge to peg all the way to the inop position (9)-V.

Thanks for the input fella's.

 

I tightened the belt today and drove it with absolutely no squeeks whatsoever, and the volt meter was working just fine around 14-v

I'm with VTFD330......I think the belt slippage wigs out the volt meter into a safe mode.
I'd like to hear if any Jeep techs know if this is a known problem, and why it does this.