I recently installed a new alternator on my 2000 cherokee 4.0 i6 due to a swamp incident and while trying to loosen the belt the adjuster bolt (which was extremely rusted) snapped in half. i re-installed the belt and tried making the belt tight as possible by pushing the idler pulley as much as possible. started it up and she squeels extremely loud. im thinking its because of the adjuster bolt and was wondering if there is any way around that? or where to find a new one seeing how i cant find any info on it. thanks in advance for any information!!

 

That sucks! It definatly needs to be replaced. But in the mean time can you get a pry bar in a good enough sopt to lever the belt tight? If not take the whole bracket with the adjuster off and get that broken bolt out of there. If you can't get it any machiene shop should be able to. Good luck

 

I don't have any info on a new one, but you can likely find one at a junkyard. Bring a can of "PB Fabulous blaster" spray. It's available at most parts stores. It will help with rusted bolts.

EDIT: don't spray any on your new belt or pulleys.

 

i recently did this, did you loosen the bolt on the front of the pulley first before your tryed to luse the adjustment nolt to move the pulley? i forgot to loosen the bolt on the pulley and snapped the adjusment bolt but picked one up at the junkyard pretty cheap

 

Just replaced my belt yesterday. You've got to loosen that bolt in the center of the pulley a couple of turns to get that pulley to move in that slot. Don't forget to tighten the center bolt back down once the belt is right/tight.

 

nope loosened the adjuster first. ill check out the junkyard tomorrow near my work hopefully they will have one and once its adjusted gets rid of the squeel!

 

I've had good luck getting replacement bolts for adjusters from napa bring whats left of the bolt and figure out a rough length and what type of head on it cause you do have to have a little info to help them out some so they can try and get you a replacment.g/l

 

Although I'm not certain I'd say the replacement bolt should be the same length, too. It should fit through the end of the bracket, like the original bolt, as it has to not only put tension on the pulley/belt it has to stay aligned while it does that.

This means if the adjuster bolt does not protrude through the bottom of the bracket it may bind up when you try to get tension on the pulley.

The bolt does not thread into either the top or bottom of the bracket but just sits in the larger diameter holes as a way of keeping that piece on the back of the pulley (that the pulley screws into) aligned while putting tension on the belt with the pulley.

 

went through the dealer for the bolt and replaced it by removing the idler pulley instead of the whole ps bracket. thanks for all the advice!