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Belt Tensioner

red91xj

NAXJA Forum User
Location
New Mexico
91, 4.0.

I'm going to do the Thermostat and housing tomorrow and the lower bolt seems exceedingly difficult to get to with the belt tensioned, I looked but couldn't seem to find the tensioner can anyone point me to it?

Thanks for helping a dummy.
 
It's under the power steering pump with the head pointing to the driver side and the tip of the bolt pointing toward the engine. Careful, it loves to seize into the knuckle... you're in NM so you may get lucky. Hit it with some PB-blaster or whatever you have around a few days beforehand.

On my 91 MJ, it's seized up and I haven't had a chance to get a new assembly yet so I just pushed the belt really hard to the side and levered the socket onto the bolt. Not ideal, and it was fairly difficult to get the threads started putting it back together, but it worked.
 
The adjustment uses the PS pump. You must loosen 4 bolts. Two behind the cast mount, the top bolt and the bolt for the "knuckle". The adjustment screw points to the block below the PS and under it like Kastein says.

I am able to remove the housing without belt adjustment. I just use the extension to get past the belt.
 
Copy that. I'll givee that a shot rather than mess with the belt. Thanks guys.
 
Just did an alternator job today, ps thing didnt work, so we took off the top pulley, put belt to the side, worked on it for an hour or 2 trying to get the ps thing to work, ended up putting pulley on and flat head it on. it worked
 
New issue. Feel like an idiot.

So I called around and no one had the housing. Apparently no one stocks it, Napa found me one but it won't be in till this afternoon. In anticipation I removed the old housing and thermostat and in doing so I dropped the upper housing bolt and it disappeared into the abyss. Cannot find it. Gone through the whole garage, looked all over the engine bay. Searched high and low. Bolt gremlins got it. I was going to replace it anyway as it was stripped but I was planning on taking it with me to get the right size/thread and all that.

Suggestions?
 
Hit the JY and pull one, then measure at Home Depot... I don't believe it's anything other than a bargain basement grade 3 or 5 I just forget the thread size (same as lower bolt) and length.

Hate it when bolts do that to me, it's probably sitting in the fan shroud, the splash guard, tangled up in the tranny cooler lines, or near the steering box though. Just quadruple check for it in/on the belt path because shredding the belt when you can't get a new one on there would probably suck.
 
Wife went out and looked for 15 seconds and found it. :banghead:

I'd love to be able to just run down to the jy lol. I live out in the country. It's a 100 mile round trip to get down to the u-pull, if I'm gonna go I'm gonna make it worth the trip in my gas guzzler. (F-250 V-8).

Thanks anyway!
 
I highly recommend you replace those original bolts with stainless steel.
 
Yeah I am. Like I said was planning on replacing them anyway but wanted the bolt for reference. About to head down to NAPA to get the therm housing now and some replacement bolts.
 
On my 90 those bolts are two different lenghts, and I couldn't find the exact sizes, so a grinder or washers are two options.
 
Also different lengths on my 91. I forget if there were two long ones or two short ones... maybe it's on 5-90's bolt page?

EDIT: nope, not yet anyways!
 
Luckily, after 20 minutes at the NAPA bolt bins I found the 2. Correct size and all.

Got the new housing and t-stat in. Started the jeep to check for leaks and all that good stuff and... Temp gauge no worky. So ran down to Vatozone got a cheapy and all is well. Runs at a constant 210*.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
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