Idler pulley squealing like mad?

ok this is the second time this has happened to me within 2 weeks....

firstly, i took my jeep (94 XJ 4.0L) through a car wash after putting it through hell last weekend, and then only after i get the thing cleaned, it starts acting up.....

the idler pulley started squealing like mad, and the speedo and tach wouldn't work, however i regained the speedo and tach in roughly 10 minutes, guessing that whatever feeds the signal to those got wet and shorted or something, works fine now

either way, the idler pulley still squealed, so i replaced it

and today i took it through a car wash.....same deal.....except my idler pulley is brand new, and the belt should very well have dried off by now, as well as the pulleys......

should i be increasing my belt tension, or do i have to order a stock of idler pulleys for every time i wash this thing? :banghead:

Could be many different things. The two that had me baffled and are common are;
1) Loose serpentine belt. They need to be REALLY tight, if you can twist it more than 90 deg. it's probably too loose.
2) Failing Harmonic Balancer/Dampener. Check to be sure the inside and outside rings haven't started to "creep" out of alignment.

Mike
P.S. search . . .

well i'll go with the most logical of the 2 there, being that i just changed the idler, the belt is probably just too loose, so i'll tighten that up


speaking of which, is there an easier way to do that than adjusting the power steering pump bracket?

That's how you tighten the belt...by adjusting the power steering bracket.

No??

I'm a RENIX guy.

i also have had the metal pulleys wear so that the running surface is no longer parallel to the shaft, what i mean is that the running surface is larger in diameter at the lip edge of the pulley and causes the belt to run off slightly and as its brought pack into alignment by the next pulley it causes the squeal

ParadiseXJ said:

That's how you tighten the belt...by adjusting the power steering bracket.

No??

I'm a RENIX guy.

Click to expand...

it's the same on my buddy's 84, he adjusted his belt via the power steering pump bracket

oldcancer said:

should i be increasing my belt tension, or do i have to order a stock of idler pulleys for every time i wash this thing? :banghead:

Click to expand...

The recommended belt tension is very high, 140-160-lbs on my 2001 XJ
Get a Krikit belt tension gauge to measure and set yours correctly.
http://www.summitracing.com/parts/GTR-09002/
Napa carries them too

lazyxj said:

The recommended belt tension is very high, 140-160-lbs on my 2001 XJ

Get a Krikit belt tension gauge to measure and set yours correctly.

Click to expand...

I just got one of those and it's a neat little tool. Works really well. I found out my belt tension was less than 100. But nothing is squealing, slipping, or overheating, so I haven't tightened it yet. I'm thinking its best to keep the belt tight enough to spin everything, and no more.