iksurb

I'm in the (long) process of removing the broken 4.0 motor in my '95
stick shift cherokee sport. My question: how/where do I relieve the tension
on the serpentine belt and how will I know how to reinstall it when I put
a replacement motor back in? I think I once seen a diagram among
Crusier54"s material but can't refind it. There appears to be an adjusting
nut on the threaded rod under the power steering pump but it's difficult to
see what backing off the nut accomplishes. I backed it off some. Nothing
happened. I have a '96 cherokee but the pump/resesvoir is slightly different
than the '95 and I don't see the same threaded rod underneath.
David Bruski in northern Michigan
bruskidave@gmail.com

Jimbo Slice

Make sure all the nuts and bolts holding the PS pump on are loose. Spray the heck out of the threaded rod with lube and then turn it in such a manner that it loosens the belt.

It's a long winded bugger and will take a minute.

MikeTheGreat26

Don't quote me on this if the set up is different, but in my 98 XJ sport it looks like this. The way I got mine in is:

FIRST I dropped the belt down around the fan on the left side of the engine bay. Down below the alternator, fan and looped the belt there first. That is the hardest area to reach. Save the easiest part for last which is by the idler and power steering pulleys all the way to the right. I then looped around the pulleys from left to right of the diagram below.

NEXT I went looped the AC and started the water pump while holding the belt with a lot of tension with my hands or it may keep slipping off. You can add tension by pulling all the slack to your right to get the belt tight on your current pulleys.

THEN I did the fan and crankshaft. Same thing. I let up a little bit of slack, but still kept things tight enough to keep from slipping. You will see what I mean.

LASTLY, finish out the last few pulleys. You can tell where the TREAD vs SMOOTH parts of the belt go by the pulleys. The smooth part of the belt goes on smooth pulleys. The tread goes on the pulleys that have lines/rows/grooves.

This is the set up I have.

this is an over head view with the water pump on the left with the belt running under it, idler pulley at the bottom right with the belt running over it (see the tread) and power steering one furthest to the right with the smooth part showing up top.

To loosen the belts you have to follow this second picture. You loosen the bolt on the idler pulley a bunch. You can even take it off if you choose to. Once it is loose enough you go to that bolt at the top part of the picture and it has a super long bolt. That is the power steering pump. You mess with that bolt. I forget which is which, I think if you loosen it the smaller idler pulley at the bottom of the pic loosens and pushes to the right in the picture giving less tension to the belt allowing you to remove the belt. I think if you tighten the long bolt on the power steering pump metal piece it will pull the small idler pulley inward towards the engine making it harder to remove the belt by adding tension.

Hope this helps. I apologize if any of my information is incorrect, anyone feel free to correct me.

TIP: My belt needed to be extremely tight to stop the chirping noise. I have seen a lot of info saying to make it so tight you think it will be way over tightened. Many others explain this could cause premature water pump failure (probably by warping the pulley the belt moves against). Which ever you decide to do, just letting you know mine needed to be crazy tight. They do sell a belt tensioner tool though. Funky looking bugger. Look on google to see.

MikeTheGreat26

Here is a link with some info from cherokee forum along with a google image search of other pulley set ups the 95 XJ may have. Wish I could be more help.

https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f5/bel...-4-0-a-130814/

https://www.google.com/search?q=95+j...w=1920&bih=931

https://www.2carpros.com/diagrams/jeep/cherokee