2000 XJ 4.0

Up until today everything was running fine on my jeep. Was on the way home and went threw a big water puddle kinda fast and shot water everywhere. Kept driving but shortly after my power steering was no more and check gauges light came on for no volts. Got home and my serpentine belt was wrapped all around my fan.

Ended up putting my belt back on and it keeps jumping off, Proper tension still comes off. Does not jump off at idle only when i go over 2k rpms it comes off.

Checked all my bearings and everything is free, only one that is iffy is my power steering pump which probably needs a replace anyways.


What could be my issue?

 

I would start with replacing the belt, and the "iffy" power steering pump. Both could be causing the belt to jump if everything else is fine.

 

I'm going to replace the belt in the morning. As for the PS pump, There is no lateral play it in. It just does not spin completely free, It only rotates a couple times before it stops.

I've looked at some other posts and one cause is the harmonic balancer going bad. How would to check to see if that is my problem?

 

Spin all of the pulleys.. do any of them wobble? If so, there's your problem. I'd be willing to bet that since your power steering pump "rotates a couple of times then stops", the pulley is probably bent and hitting the housing.

 

Something is out of alignment i'll bet, or a pulley/bearing is toast

I wouldn't replace the belt till you figure out why it is jumping off, the XJ tensioner has so much adjustment that even a worn belt can be properly tensioned

 

I checked all the pulleys for a wobble and none of them have any lateral movement except for the mechanical fan. When i spin it there is a very slight wobble, nothing major i can see to make the belt jump off though. I don't understand how everything was fine before and just going threw some water would cause a pulley to get out of alignment.

 

I know it was mentioned but I would suspect alignment in this case, one of the pulleys is out causing it to jump when it you speed up... I would suspect the fan or balancer pulley before the power steering, the power steering should be really obvious it is out of alignment from the others. Put a straight edge on it & the pulley next to it.

 

how about a couple of photos from different angles, maybe place a straight edge against the pulleys and snap a photo...pictures speak volumes

 

What about the harmonic balancer? when they fail, they tend to walk back towards the timing chain cover. In some cases they actually wear a groove into the cover. I wonder if his harmonic balancer needs replaced. Would help to have some up close photos of the balancer.

 

MOVING water can be a pretty tremendous force, don't take it for granted. I had a chevy pickup truck with a metal license plate on the front bumper that got bent in half one day when bombing through water puddles. When your mechanical fan is moving as you're driving through water, it turns into a boat prop.... suddenly, it's wanting to PULL through the water - which is much denser than air - versus just remaining stationary and pulling air through the radiator.

That wobble on the mechanical fan, may be a result of that pulley walking forward on the fan hub which, if that is the case, you need to be careful... I noticed a little bit of play with my mech fan and it turns out it was because the hole for the flange was wollered out and the fan walked OFF the fan hub and into my radiator.

Do as Doc (Willys55) suggested and use a straight edge across the pulleys. You can't determine if a pulley has walked on you by "eyeballing" it.... at least not until it's just about too late.

 

It ended up being a worn belt, Thank you everyone for the help!

 

Strange how a "worn belt" could cause the power steering pump to seize up.
Well