Pulley Alignment

[wish]

Hey guys, I'm wondering if anyone else has this issue. It seems like everytime the water pump is changed on the engine the pulleys get out of line. I first encountered this before my wife and I were dating and it ate a belt after a shop had "fixed" it. Their fix seemed to be to replace all the pulleys, of course that's what the ticket said, I doubt that's actually what they've done.

A few months ago I put in another 2.5L from another 84 XJ and it has the same alignment issues. I put in a couple thick washers by the water pump and that aligned the belt, but it's squealing now because the belt isn't squared up with the pulley. Obviously I can put some more washers on the brace in back to help line it all back up.

But the question is, does anyone else have this problem? Or is it unique to the early 2.5 serpentine system ?

This particular Jeep has a/c and p/s, as did the replacement engine.

Thanks for any tips.
Bill

 

[cykaaro]

Find this interesting myself. Have a '90 4.0 and had to put in an idler pulley as the original one was shot. My water pump bearings just sent this past week so had to have a new one put in. Was asking what would cause it to suddenly go like that. Was explained to me that because of the new pulley, and subsequent tension change, altered the alignment putting more stress on the water pump, which is the original one still, or rather was, and that the bearings being worn finally gave up the ghost. Maybe a similar thing happening?

 

[wish]

Well, since everyone is anxiously awaiting the answer on this, raceready came over and helped me diagnose it. Turned out the bracket that goes from the motor mount up to the intake and holds the powersteering pump had rounded out the lower hole for the pump mount. This let the pump slip back too far, and skewed (edit: originally an appropriate use of the word c*cked and it x's it out ? what is up with that?!?!?!) it a little bit so the belt wouldn't sit flat in the pulley.

I had another of these brackets on the other engine, it had the exact same problem (and a crack on top). Joel was nice enough to weld these problem areas up and paint the thing up all nice and grey for me. So I threw it in there tonight, hooked everything back up and it all lined up perfectly. Misses the intake coolant hose as well as the upper radiator hose and hits square on the p/s and harmonic balancer. Time will tell if it develops any other problems, but this certainly seems to have made it look better anyway.

Those of you with squealing/noisy belts on the old 2.5s may want to check this area, it's not a quick and simple fix, but hopefully it will make the belts last a lot longer.

Bill

 

[cykaaro]

Thanks for posting your results and glad you got if fixed up!

 

[85xjwoody]

I own an 85 xj wagoneer with the 2.5. I had to replace my alternator and that was a pain!!! When I went to get a new one the new alternator had a v-pulley on it so I had to swap out to the serpentine pulley. after running it for about 10,000 miles there is a groove worn in to the pulley fan from the alternator bracket. I had the belt come off once under very high rpm's and gave it some frayed sides. Put it back on and have had no problems since. I am currently replacing my engine and the power steering issue that was mentioned before is close to what mine was like. Mine the nut was missing off of the back of the bracket but was still fairly tight. I have had no other problems with my serpentine belt driven 2.5. Maybe this is something for all 2.5 owners to look into so this doesn't happen to them.

 

[wish]

Well my belt went again. Not nearly as spectacularly, I just happened to have the hood up to check the idle as it was a bit low and noticed the belt was nearly through the one rib that it has been wearing out.

I started looking again at the harmonic balancer as that's where you can actually see it slipping back a rib. I compared the timing marks on the balancer with those on the engine that didn't have the problem and found the balancer was still out farther on this engine than the other one. I didn't think it would tighten up much more as I cranked on it pretty hard the last time I set it, but the first good tug caused a "pop" somewhere and it didn't seem to be the bolt breaking or the crank stripping, so I kept tightening it down until it was lined up the same as the other engine's pulley. I'm not sure if I can get it much tighter without bracing the flywheel (was using a pry bar in the balancer itself to keep it from spinning), but when I slipped a used but not shot belt on, it was runing right in the middle of the balancer and you could even see once it was started that the belt pulled back on the waterpump too so it was centered on that pulley now.

I'm hoping this means this belt will last a while, as expensive as these belts are, a new one every two weeks will end up costing me more than it could ever save in gas over my truck.

Bill