Originally Posted by CommanderXJ

A few days ago, my jeep started making a noise that sounded like plastic cups being tossed around. I pinpointed this noise to the engine bay and found my serpentine belt was way off track by power steering pump. So to fix this, I went ahead and loosened the belt tension adjusting bolt by the power steering pump bracket and the idler pulley and realigned the belt once more and tightened her up again.

Within seconds of starting the vehicle up again, it slipped off track again and I decided to take a dance with my luck and had tried to drive it back to my house which was a mere 7 miles away. Unfortunately, it did not make it. Part way through the trip, the serpentine belt came completely off and I lost power steering and the temperature started to rise. I was forced to pull it over to a gas station to let it rest for about 15-20 min before I trudged it along to a nearby friend's house where it currently sits.

My question is....what the hell is wrong with it? The belt was on there pretty good and is (was) in good condition before, so I am not sure how it all of the sudden started to become loose and slip off track.

Any input is greatly appreciated, the car is my only set of wheels now so the sooner I get this thing back on the road, the better.

It's a 96' cherokee with a 4.0 for those wondering.

EDIT: Oh, and my coolant spewed everywhere too causing the car to overheat.

Originally Posted by Modrod

If you have Advance Auto Parts get their water pump. I tried the Autozone and O'Reilly (new and rebuilt from O'Reilly) ones and they both squealed. Took me 4 tries to get one that didn't sound like it was falling apart. The Advance Auto one is a GMB pump, the Azone and O'Reilly ones were A-Cardone pumps. That has been my experience anyway.
Glad you got it figured out.

Originally Posted by cpnwrench

99.9% of the time you hear that noise like the plastic cups on the floor thingsy thing.

its the idler pulley/tensioner. (the cheapo bearing in it has worn and gone.)

check all pulleys by hand....no belt on..spin them with your hand.

like the other guys said if any one of them grind, or are sloppy, or seem like not spinning right.. thats the problem.

anyway, good luck!

cpnwrench

Originally Posted by lawsoncl

More often than not, people undertighten the belt. Get a Krikket-II guage and set the tension properly instead of guessing. Inspect the harmonic balancer, aka the big pulley on the crank. The outside portion should be even with the inside portion. What happens is the rubber separator between the two dry rots and the outer ring can slip forward or backward causes the belt the be noisy. It can also slip rotationally under load causing noise. Some cheap belts seem to be noisy too.

Grab a piece of hose and use that as a stethoscope.