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never ending squeeking belt

P

premoxj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
San Diego, CA
ok - this thing is driving me absolutely crazy!! I'm at my whits ends and about to push this thing out into the alleyway if i dont get some closure asap. I can't for the life of me get the belt to stop squeeking. The belt began to squeek shortly after i had purchased the thing (Maybe a year or so ago, i dont recall exactly). The belt was a little dry so i replaced it. a few months down the road it began to squeek again. i tightened it up and it went away. now its squeeking, again. the belt is in perfectly fine working order. i took a wire wheel and hit all the pulleys so they're clean and unbrazed, they all spin fine with no resistance and the alignment appears to be spot on. i've adjusted the thing with the engine running and no matter which way i go when the motor is cold it squeeks anywhere from mildly annoying to wanting to get my shotgun out and blast a hole thru the radiator. i'm at a loss. anybody else have this problem? its freaking embarrasing driving down the road sometimes. FYI - it goes away when its really warm out. maybe i got a bunk belt? it appears to be fine. FYI i feel like an idiot making a post about a damn fan belt. ugh......lol
 
Water pump is probably leaking a tiny bit on the belt. That usually does it.
 
all the bearings and pulleys appear to be fine. took the belt off (more then once) and checked them all. no noise, no resistance, spin freely etc.
 
Year? Assuming it is not a bearing, as long as you are sure that all pulleys spin freely and are aligned, you simply tighten the belt until it quits squeaking. How you go about this varies by model year.

Some will suggest that you get a Kriket(sp) tension gauge and it can't hurt, but my view is that I am not going to drive around with a squealing belt regardless of what the gauge says. I just carefully tighten the thing until it quits squealing and no more.
 
its a 92, non-renix. the steering pump acts as the tensioner.

i've adjusted it with the motor running and it goes from somewhat annoying to mildly annoying and then to REALLY annoying lol

ive heard about the tension gauge. its it something crazy like 160lbs?!
 
Get yourself a length of hose and use it like a stethescope and find exactly what point the noise is coming from. Be carefull not to get tangled up in the belt.

I use a spray can of belt dressing. If the sound goes away for even a minute, the problem is the belt, not a pulley/bearing. I have a fairly new belt that has squeeked since the day it was new. I can spray it and it goes away for a bit. I have it very tight and don't want to tighten it any further to prevent damaging a bearing. I will probably just get a new belt and then put the squeeker under the back seat as a trail spare.
 
premoxj said:
all the bearings and pulleys appear to be fine. took the belt off (more then once) and checked them all. no noise, no resistance, spin freely etc.
Click to expand...

sure, but they're not under any kind of side loading like the belt puts them under.

spray the backs of them with WD-40 while it's running and squeaking.

squeak goes away, that pulley bearing is bad.
 
Be careful about over tightening the belt, it can trash your water pump bearings.
I had one that wouldn't stop squeaking, my radiator sprung a leak, spewed and soaked the belt with coolant. Also shorted out my alternator.

I tried various things with no success. I eventually scrubbed what belt was showing with really hot water and dish washing soap, took a few times to get all the belt. It worked for a few weeks but it eventually came back. My guess is the coolant soaks into the belt and it eventually bleeds coolant from the inside and glazes the belt again.

I found some silicon spray especially made for rubber (door seals) and tried that, it worked, squeak gone after a few applications. Most silicons aren't to be used on rubber, some are specially formulated for rubber.

Next time I'm tempted to throw the belt into the washing machine or dishwasher and see what happens.
 
Try a Gatorback belt and adjust it using a Kricket
belt tension gauge. That worked for me.

It's hard to adjust these belts by feel. Using a
gauge gives a lot of peace of mind.
 
Try adjusting the alignment of the power steering pump pulley on the pump shaft.

You'll need a special puller for this to pull the pulley out (forward) a bit; and a hardened
bolt and washer (I don't remember the thread spec) to push it (rearwards) or further on
to the shaft.

1/16" - 1/8" forwards or rearwards makes all the difference in the world.
 
westvirginia24976 said:
Buy a belt from Dodge and be done with it. I have fixed several squeaky belts by not using parts store belts. Brand new parts store belts will squeak.
Click to expand...

^^
This....

I went through 3 Napa belts back to back, before I gave up and bought an OEM belt.

The Napa belts would stretch beyond the adjustment limits within a day, and would never fully tighten.
 
hmm...good to know. i bought the last one at autozone. I had to adjust it twice after a month or so. it was good until i took it off to replace my water pump then it made noise after i took it off. now that I think about it, I probably got fluid all over the damn thing. I need to call them and see if there is any sort of warranty, there probably is.

I need to swing by the jeep dealership this week anyways for a PCV valve. Hopefully I don't walk away with another JK like last time..LOL!
 
damnit!! I just read this to see if anyone had suggested the harmonic balancer just to find that it was the cause...... glad you got it fixed, and for anyone else searching in the future:

check the balancer before condemning a new belt that constantly needs adjustment-- every time you adjust the belt, you just pull the outer ring of the balancer farther off the center portion.
 
I had a different solution to slipping belt on my '84 XJ.
The alternator pulley had worn such that the teeth of the pulley grooves were sharp (think the profile of the Eiffel Tower) and were the only contact points with the new belt.
Tried 2 different belts.

Fix was new alternator pulley which had as-new W shaped grooves.
 
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