Hello everyone my jeep keeps eating belts lately. I don't know what it is but I think it may be the ac compressor. Also how tight does the belt have to be ?

 

Make sure that all the pulleys are lined up correctly and that they all spin free and are not binding. They should all spin without any resistance.

 

Does the compressor turn freely when off the belt?

Problem with shredding belts is often a deteriorating crank pulley. You often have to look very carefully to spot rubber beginning to expand out between the two halves and/or the halves getting out of alignment.

Belt has to be very tight. If it squeals or chirps or makes any sound when all pulleys and their components are in good condition, it is too loose.

 

180-200 ftlbs. I believe I've read that the crank pulley is actually two parts and could separate causing misalignment.

 

I recently had to replace my harmonic balancer (crank pulley). I chased a squeaking belt/shredded belt problem for months. I'd put a new belt on, a few days would go by and it'd start squeaking. About a month later, the belt would shred. I checked all the pulleys several times and everything seemed good. I have a parts XJ so I thought that I'd try replacing the HB. It was very hard to see that the rubber was starting to separate but that did the trick. No problems since. So, check ALL the pulleys carefully. If they all look and feel good, look at the HB.

 

Just had a friend of mine going through the same crap, He just had the water pump done on his truck and killed /shredded like 4 belts, Double and triple checked the work on the water pump thinking it was out of wack, But all checked out ok, Turns out it was the Belt tensioner, Changed that and has not had a problem since...,

Not sure if you have a tensioner that is spring loaded or anything, But maybe the tensioners bad.. Just trying to help..

Ant...

 

It use to screech when the ac turned on.

 

Had this problem, few of the bolts on the power steering pump back were missing causing pulley to **** forward

 

also be sure to grab a krikit belt tension guage to get the proper tension... I thought I had my belt tight.. wasn't even 100 ft lb's

Now it is set at 180... no sqeaks! I will back it to 160 after 500 miles