Hey y'all, Bought my 1st Cherokee a moth ago and I'm going thru everything to winterize. My water pump got to chirping and the belt's worn out and I don't trust the sound of the bearing in the P S Pump so I'm switching all of it and the Thermostat and belt tensioner out.

Problem is the belt tension is not enough to stop the belt from turning the pulleys when I go to loosen the WP Pulley. Like-wise w/the fan clutch mounting bolts. I don't have an air comp. so I don't really have an impact wrench. Is this normal? I keep reading that the belt tension is enough to stop the pulleys and allow those bolts to be loosened. Is there a trick to this I don't know?

Problem 2 is that after getting nowhere with it I took the belt off to inspect and measure it. I was able to loosen the belt at the tensioner bolt w/out having to loosen the tensioner's center bolt! In fact, afer removing the belt the tensioner is really loose and the center bolt won't turn free of the tensioner pulley and even with belt tension on it that center bolt just turns the idler under the belt.

I thought you had to loosen that center bolt on the tensioner to allow the tensioner adjustment bolt the freedom to move. The tensioner itself is just wobbling on its bolt (both with and w/out the belt on, I discovered) and the nut is frozen. I have applied break free.

I'm new to the cherokee so I haven't worked on this engine and I'm by no means a "mechanic" - I just have worked on a lot of cars out of necessity.

On top of all that the two top mounting bolts for the PS Pump are frozen as well. They are starting to strip before letting go. Wow. This should have been a relatively simple job!

Any help/advice is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Stripped bolts are a royal PITA.......sounds like the belt adjustment mechanism threads may be stripped. We loosened the water pump pulley bolts 1st, then loosened the center bolt in the idler pulley, then loosened the adjusting bolt to give the belt slack. I believe the center bolt in the idler pulley should always be loosened before turning the adjustment bolt, then the center bolt in the idler pulley is snugged up (after adjustment).

 

For frozen bolts, hit them with penetrating oil about 24 hours before trying to take them out.

 

For the water pump pully, use two wrenches to loosen 3 of the bolts but dont take them all the way out, for the 4th use a big screwdriver and put it in between the two bolts and create a fulcrum then loosen the 4th.

For the tension pully you will have to remove the whole bracket which unfortunately is also the PS pump bracket.

Are you sure the PS pump bolts are spinning? They are a fine thread and require quite a few turns to remove.

 

@xKHANX - the PS pump bolts are frozen. They won't move. it's the water pump pulley and the fan clutch that are turning while I try to loosen their mounting bolts.

The center bolt on the tensioner is frozen but the tensioner adjustment screw operates fine. It's just strange that the center nut on the tensioner did not need to be loosened in order to let the adjustment bolt operate. When the belt is on, the frozen center bolt on the tensioner turns the entire tensioner pulley (with full belt tension). With the belt off the tensioner is really loose and wobbly yet still has the frozen center bolt.

Does the tensioner's center bolt need to be removed in order to replace the tensioner (replacement - which is my plan, anyway)?

 

Correct, it needs to be pulled to replace the pully.

See if you can get some heat on the back side of the PS pump bracket and douse it with PB Blaster give it a min then re-apply heat. When you go to remove it see if you can first move it as if tightening it then try and back it out.

 

Update:

I got my head on right and took off the belt so I could get a chain wrench around the water pump pulley. I pulled a breaker bar w/13mm socket against the direction of the tightening chain and they easily came loose (I PB Blasted the hell out of all mounting bolts for this entire project about 72 hours ago and let them soak it all in. It worked). I wasn't worried about damaging the pulley because I intend to change it out. The chain wrench didn't seem to damage it at all. I will have to put the chain wrench back on the pulley to torque down the new pulley's mounting bolts. Does anyone know how many ft/lbs to torque the water pump pulley?

The pulley had to be tapped on w/the butt end of the breaker bar to release it but that seemed to be the easiest way to get all four bolts broken w/out switching tools. It was really easy. Just thought I'd share the solution in case anyone needs it going forward.

 

Oh, additionally, just soaking the P/S Pump's mounting bolts for 72 hours in Break Free seemed to be all that was needed to loosen them up. I applied the B Free liberally and re-applied a half hour later then left them alone for 4 days. Today they came loose with steady, constant pressure from a short 13mm wrench w/little leverage because of its short length. They loosened right up. I didn't have to heat them up or otherwise torture them to get them off. If you have the time this is what I would have to suggest. It wasn't effortless but I didn't really even have to break a sweat.