Harmonic Balancer...

I have a new little chirp coming from the front of my XJ when I start it up cold. It seems to go away when it warms up. I have used a automotive stethoscope to try to locate the noise. It does NOT appear to be coming from the 1. Alternator, 2. Waterpump, 3. Guide pulley, 4. Power steering pump, or 5. AC compressor bearings. So I think it may be the Harmonic Balancer, I can not listen to it with the steth because there is no place that is not spinning. Question: Did I miss anything else to check? And how do I replace the balancer? I can only see a single bolt on the front of it viewing from under the XJ. Do I need a puller? And can it be removed without taking out a bunch of junk. Thanks for your thoughts. Sean M. 95XJ, 88,000 miles

It could just be the serpentine belt. A puller is required to remove the balancer but it's not very likely to squeek. If you do remove the balancer, don't just use the bolt to push it back on. The bolt will only grab a few threads and strip out. You can use a longer bolt screwed fully in conjunction with a nut and greased washer to push it back on.

A quick way to check if the noise orginates from the belt is as follows:

When the engine is running, and the noise is present, pour some water on the belt. This will quite the belt for a few seconds, until the water is all shed, assuming the belt is the source of the noise.

If the noise does not change with a wet belt, you can rule out the belt proper as the source.

I had different experience

My balancer was toast, but yhe chirping would stop when I threw water on the belt. Maybe the water caused the belt to slip around the balancer as it reduced load on the thing. Dunno, whatever, it started screaming while I was far from home so I let a mechanic do it-- think for about $130. Hasn't make a chirp or eaten a belt since. Report back when you're done will ya, I wanna hear how it turned out.

Still Chirpping.....

I tried the water on the belt, and yes the squeeking went away for a minute. The chirpping was louder this morning, but went away in about 3 miles. The harmonic balancer wobbles a little while idling, is that normal. After reading the last post about that the water trick may not fix all, I'm still watching the HM. My serp belt has approximately 25 K miles on it. Any other ways to check the HB without removing it???
Sean M.

Harmonic balancer should not wobble -- it should run absolutely true. Time to replace.

Be careful if you go to a dealer. Jeep changed the design to eliminate the internal oil slinger, but when they did that they discontinued the harmonic balancer that works with the slinger and superceded everything to the new style. It works in the older engines -- except that to install it you have to remove the front cover to discard the oil slinger.

I believe the '95 still uses the old style. Therefore, the dealer can't sell you the right part. Go with Crown, or NAPA.

Thanks for the info. Mucho appreciated...
Sean
RockWgn