Folks---Maybe this will help one of you one day. My 1998 cherokee had a squeal that most people would have identified as a belt problem--and I honestly couldn't tell that it wasn't. It took me about a year of tinkering and replacing the belt, idle pully an just getting aggrevated. I was actually starting to get ready to replace the water pump and fan clutch before I finaly got lucky.

The bearing in the distributer shaft was the cause. At 180k miles I suppose this is not uncommon but it sounded exactly like a belt chirping and the noise resonates to area around the pulley so it was hard to determine that it was coming from the distributer.

Not hard, but not the easiest thing in the world to replace...$190.00 from advance.

-scott

 

Thanks...I've got a chirp/squeal problem right now...this will help me.

 

Thanks for the information Scott. I have a question though. Would yours stop after it was in a warm place for a bit and start again? I am having the same problem and have already replaced my water pump and idler pulley. The belt is only about 6 months old, that's because it was rotted and needed to be replaced anyway.

Thanks

Wayne