• NAXJA is having its 18th annual March Membership Drive!!!
    Everyone who joins or renews during March will be entered into a drawing!
    More Information - Join/Renew
  • Welcome to the new NAXJA Forum! If your password does not work, please use "Forgot your password?" link on the log-in page. Please feel free to reach out to [email protected] if we can provide any assistance.

belt squeeling, bad water pump?

the_bandit87

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Sydney,NS
So just recently I finally replaced the serpantine belt that was on the Jeep when I got it with a new one. It squeels quite a bit, at first it was only a little then a lot, then a whole lot. I have noticed that the Pully that couples the water pump to the fan has the belt slipping off of it on the inboard side of the pully (the side towards the engine). It almost looks like the pully is at an angle and this is why it is slipping off. I have the power steering pump tightened up pretty good and the the belt has the proper deflection, only about 1/2" between the idler and the PS pump on the pump side IIRC. I was wondering if thus could be caused by a bad bearing on the water pump. The pump is currently not leaking.
 
truthfully I haven't really had a chance to look at the crank pully, but when I installed the belt it was fine. When we first started it up the belt had pronounced "whistle" that then got worse and turned into a squeeal. I can see that it is almost backing off the end of the waterpump/fan pully. I put a bit of WD on the belt just to quiet it down. The funny thing is that it used to squeal with the old belt but usually it would only squeal on cold days. At one point I roughed up the idler and some of the pullys with a bit of sand paper and that seemed to help too (they were all polished pretty good).
 
i don't know about the accuracy of your deflection test (I have heard of it and am not discrediting you) but it may just not be tight enough. My 2000 XJ squeeled right after i put on a fresh belt. I turned it off, tightened it more, ane the squeeling went away. I need to get a Krikit II to measure it accuratly but you may be in the same boat.
 
yeah its funny you should mention that because I tightened up the Powersteering pump as much as I could, and the squeal still never went away. The belt will not stop squealing. I will try to see if I can get it any tighter.
 
the_bandit87 said:
yeah its funny you should mention that because I tightened up the Powersteering pump as much as I could, and the squeal still never went away. The belt will not stop squealing. I will try to see if I can get it any tighter.

Don't go too tight, as that will just start killing the bearings. Check the crank pulley (aka harmonic damper) and make sure it's not seperating. Look for any of the rubber sticking out.
 
Which pulley are you talking about. On our xjs there is no pulley that couples the water pump to the fan. The water pump has a pulley on it, but that's it. The fan is on its own seperate pulley/bearing assembly.

Kyung
 
If the water pump shaft is worn, the pulley will wobble and throw off the belt. The water pump will only start leaking from the weep hole when the shaft seal breaks. Seems to me that you're gonna need a new water pump.
 
Squealing could come from any of the pulleys. Do you have A/C? Does it get worse when you turn it on?

Make sure the belt is centered over the grooved pulleys correctly.

 
Dr. Dyno I am thinking you are probably right, the belt is coming off of the water pump (improper alignment as shown above) but the belt has not been thrown off, its just about the last 1/4-1/3 is coming off the inboard end of the pully. When we realign the belt onto that pully for the water pump it hops off the back and starts squealing again. The only thing I find odd is that the old one wasn't squaling (it would when cold but this is CONSTANT). Currently there is no leakage from the waterpump but I suspect that the bearing is probably bad and the old belt was just stretched and warn so it was not squealing. I am just worried that I am killing my Serpantine belt, and by the way, no I just have an idler, no AC.

EDIT: By the way the harmonic balencer is fine from what I can see, doesn't look to be sepperating
 
Last edited:
I'm sorry, but I'm stupid and it was dark. Its not the waterpump pully that it is working its way off of, it is the pully for the FAN. I have to check it again since I adjusted the belt a bit (loosened it off, lined it up with the pullys, and tightened it back on. I will let u guys know what happenes.
 
Remove the belt altogether and check each pulley one by one for wobbles or squeaks. Then you'll know which is the culprit. What you're doing now is like pissing into the wind and you won't find the problem that way.
 
Hi, I don't want to hijack your thread but I am having a similar squealing, except mine only squeals when I first start the Jeep and turn on the A/C. It is horribly loud and as I press on the accelerator it gets louder. If I turn off the A/C it goes away and once the Jeep warms up it goes away as well. What do you think is causing my squeak? Do you think it could be the idle squealing as the A/C compressor kicks on and puts more tension on the idler because it seems like the squeal is coming more from the driver side not A/C or passenger side of the engine compartment.
 
92westshady said:
Hi, I don't want to hijack your thread but I am having a similar squealing, except mine only squeals when I first start the Jeep and turn on the A/C. It is horribly loud and as I press on the accelerator it gets louder. If I turn off the A/C it goes away and once the Jeep warms up it goes away as well. What do you think is causing my squeak? Do you think it could be the idle squealing as the A/C compressor kicks on and puts more tension on the idler because it seems like the squeal is coming more from the driver side not A/C or passenger side of the engine compartment.

In your case the belt's probably not tight enough so when you add extra load to it by switching on the A/C, it slips on the water pump and idler pulleys because they don't have grooves.
To find out if that's the case, there's two things you can do to check the belt tension. Firstly, check the deflection along its longest free length (usually idler pulley to PS pump). It should be not more than 1/2". Secondly, grab the belt in the same place and see how much you can twist it. It should go no more than 90 degrees if it's tight enough.
 
92westshady said:
Hi, I don't want to hijack your thread but I am having a similar squealing, except mine only squeals when I first start the Jeep and turn on the A/C. It is horribly loud and as I press on the accelerator it gets louder. If I turn off the A/C it goes away and once the Jeep warms up it goes away as well. What do you think is causing my squeak? Do you think it could be the idle squealing as the A/C compressor kicks on and puts more tension on the idler because it seems like the squeal is coming more from the driver side not A/C or passenger side of the engine compartment.

Which hijacked thread should we respond to?
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=27233
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=79361
or http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=90350 ?

And yeah it's probably just a loose belt.
 
Back
Top