Thanks for the inputs. I'm going to take out the belt when I get home and check each pulley. It doesn't squeak unless the a/c is on before it gets warmed up.

It could be that I made the belt tighter than it was before causing the extra stress on the already worn bearings. Are the clutch bearings easy to fix myself or do I have to buy a whole new clutch?

 

 

Pulled out the idler pulley and the bearing is not spinning so well. All of the other ones that I can spin spin fine. None are loose. I feel that a new tight belt made the idler pulley do worse and cause the slipping. I'll put the belt on a bit looser and see if that makes it squeal less.

I'll do that load test when I get it all back together.

Are there any replacement idle pulleys i should stay away from?

 

Alright so it seems to be the tensioner (idler) pulley. I put the belt back on and didn't tighten it up nearly as much as I had it last time. The belt started squeaking right away with a/c off and then went away after a few seconds. Came back with revs and a/c on. As I increased the load from different pulleys (alternator, a/c, motor) the belt squealed louder.

While I was making it squeak I went around with a cheap stethoscope and found that the origin was at the tensioner/idler pulley. So I tightened her up just a bit more and that made it a bit better.

I'll replace the pulley with a dorman one from amazon and report back.

 

I personally wouldn't get Dorman. I have problems with majority of their parts I work with. I always find their parts fail very prematurely. You can still get one, but keep an eye on it. If you ever get a squeak or something, look at that Dorman idler pulley first.

 

Quick, cheap and easy fix. I want to see if this will solve the problem before I invest in a good one.

 

From what I see, the Dorman one is $9 compared to something like an ACDelco one that's $13. Even if it's not the fix, the part is cheap enough to just buy a quality one and not worry about it ever being the problem for the foreseeable future. Let us know how it turns out once you switch the part.

 

Can you link the ACDelco one you found? I couldn't find one with the proper dims

 

It's on RockAuto. Just search up your vehicle and once you get to 4.0L type idler pulley, and it'll come up. Make sure for any part you're looking at, don't get the economy replacement. They'll be divided into different portions of the list sometimes. Make sure it's at least in the Standard Replacement category if it's divided up. In this case it's not, but that's just for future reference.

http://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/j...le.com+URL+%2F

 

I have just picked up a 16 trailhawk this past weekend. I also noticed some high pitch ringing while stopped or going slow when I was messing around in 4 low. I know the 4wd and everything with it makes some weird noises while shifting or actuating into gear or just doing what it needs to do. I don't think there is anything wrong with it and just some noises it makes while working. I personally wouldn't worry about it.

 

My XJ currently has a similar squeak. Mine is my alternator, some days it charges at 14 volts, some days it doesn't charge at all. I haven't gotten around to replacing mine but if I were you I would look at your alternator to see if thats the source.

 

Couple months later and the squeal got worse. It also sounded like a metal scraping sound whenever I started the car. It turned out to be the AC clutch scraping against the pulley. I looked into changing just the pulley bearing and clutch. I found it cheaper and easier to replace the entire compressor, accumulator, and oriface tube. Now my AC is colder than before, doesn't cycle on and off, and is super quiet.

Thanks Slick