Squeal, Chirp, chirp, SQUEAL

Sorry, this is soooo Long!
A couple weeks ago My Serp belt broke on the trail. It was a couple years old, so I didn't give it another thought. Threw on a spare and was good to go. A couple days later I bought a new one a put it on, and put my spare back under the back seat. About two weeks later on another trail I start hearing a chirp, chirp, chirp... Tighten up the belt and it goes away for a bit then turns into a full blown metallic grinding, bearing going out type of sound. Get it home, Do a search, and go out to start diagnosing. Get a short piece of hose and try to listen to where it's coming from.... sounds like everywhere! Took the belt off and fired it up... no squeal. Spun some pulleys by hand and the alt made a light squeak so I replace it. Fired it up and... squeal! Grabbed a spare idler pulley and threw it on... tightened everything up and... squeal.

Being that the sound was very Metallic sounding, the water pump was now obvious. It wasn't "weeping" but it was 6-7 years old and I changed it out anyway. Tightened the belt and... squeal. WTF!!! My Jeep was Mocking me! Back to to troubleshoot more. Found out the Harmonic Balancer going out is not uncommon. Took a look at mine and sure enough, there were some cracks in the rubber and some small chunks of rubber missing. Got a new one and installed it. The end is near! tightened up the belt and... SQUEAL! Is it getting louder? Went and bought a new Idler pulley to replace the spare I put on... SQUEAL/ grind! It doesn't get any louder when the AC is on or off, so in my mind it ruled that out. Same with the Power steering. With the listening hose, the sound was coming from the center of the pulleys. Only thing left, the Clutch fan pulley. Pulled one from my parts jeep and threw it on. Feeling confident, I put the belt back on... Squeal/Grind! F&%$ I'm throwing tools, done, not doing any more. I tell my wife that's it, I'm dropping the jeep of at a friends shop. I'm done with it. I piss N moan to her about everything I've done to it and she says... It would be funny if it was the new belt you put on it. No, no, no... It couldn't be that... It's a brand new belt! I go out and swap the spare back in... NO SQUEAK!
Turns out the new belt was 1/8 inch wider. I post this long... rant.. for future searchers that are having a hard time hunting down a noise. Eliminate the super simple things first! Bright side is I've got a lot of new stuff on my jeep!

DOOD! Where did you find your wife... I need to go there! Also I don't know that I would admit that my wife fixed my jeep when I couldn't. Anyway.. props for figuring it out! (Or should I say props to your Wife) HAHA just kiddin!

I'm having the same sort of problem with my '93 XJ 4.0L.

Power steering pump started to weep fluid out the back cover. I swapped the pump
with a rebuilt NAPA unit and a new pulley. I reused the old belt. SQUEEL! SCREECH!
CHIRP...chirp chirp! Awful metallic grinding noises, too. You can hear the racket from
2-3 houses away. No amount of belt tightening would quell the noise. At first, I thought
I was given a bum new pump.

I swapped the old pulley back in and checked the pulley alignment. No change.
Then I swapped in a new idler pulley. No luck.

Just for laughs, I took a spray bottle and squirted a stream of water on the belt while the
engine was idling. Whoila! All the noises disappeared!

Next week, I'm going to try to put in a Goodyear Gatorback belt. I had to special order
the belt as nobody in So CA seems to sell them (...nobody here seem to sell standard
incandescent light bulbs, and Entemann's Chocolate Chip Cookies, either ...but I suppose
that's another story).

If I were a Goodyear stock owner, I would have a thing or two to say at the next
stockholder's board meeting about their product distribution practices - or lack
thereof.

There is a plus side to this story, however. I've found that when your car sounds like
a howling banshee - pedestrians will step out of your way and other rush-hour drivers
will steer clear and make your commute a smoother and more pleasurable experience.

I'm having the same sort of problem with my '93 XJ 4.0L.

Power steering pump started to weep fluid out the back cover. I swapped the pump
with a rebuilt NAPA unit and a new pulley. I reused the old belt. SQUEEL! SCREECH!
CHIRP...chirp chirp! Awful metallic grinding noises, too. You can hear the racket from
2-3 houses away. No amount of belt tightening would quell the noise. At first, I thought
I was given a bum new pump.

I swapped the old pulley back in and checked the pulley alignment. No change.
Then I swapped in a new idler pulley. No luck.

Just for laughs, I took a spray bottle and squirted a stream of water on the belt while the
engine was idling. Whoila! All the noises disappeared!

Next week, I'm going to try to put in a Goodyear Gatorback belt. I had to special order
the belt as nobody in So CA seems to sell them (...nobody here seem to sell standard
incandescent light bulbs, and Entemann's Chocolate Chip Cookies, either ...but I suppose
that's another story).

If I were a Goodyear stock owner, I would have a thing or two to say at the next
stockholder's board meeting about their product distribution practices - or lack
thereof.

There is a plus side to this story, however. I've found that when your car sounds like
a howling banshee - pedestrians will step out of your way and other rush-hour drivers
will steer clear and make your commute a smoother and more pleasurable experience.

Check your harmonic balancer, see if its hitting the timing chain cover.

The Gatorback belt arrived today. I cleaned all of the pulleys with a brass wire brush.

kenny811 - thanks for pointing out the timing cover. The was a thick layer of oily dirt build-up there and the old belt was getting into it. I scraped and wiped it clean.

I put on the new belt and set the tension to 180 lbs. using a Krikit gauge.

No more squeels or chirps! Thanks all.