A/C Bracket Spindle Failure

1993 4.0 L with AC and all the power accesories. Serpentine Belt. The mondo bracket that holds the a/c compressor also has a spindle that supports the fan and fan clutch. In mine, the spindle has started to wear and it is now metal-on-metal grinding. Is this a press fit bushing? Bearings? I wondered if anyone else has had this go out and what is the easiest/best fix. Junkyard part? Anybody got one? Is it time to convert to an electric fan? If so, how do you remeasure for the shorter serpentine belt? Anybody got a part number for the belt that will fit after taking that pulley out of the belt train?

TIA Bill-93XJ

I'm in a similar boat. I'm getting some grinding from that pulley and I need to find a replacement but I can't seem to even figure out what part to get.

Well, I just called my favorite boneyard and they will pull one from a 1993 for me for $40. Seems kinda pricey, but I guess you are buying 'convienence'. I will probably go this route. My gut tells me that this is a press fit bushing. The mileage on the junker is supposed to be 110,000 so maybe it has a little life left in it. IF I change to an electric fan at a later point, I will have a spare bracket to modify so that I can put an idler pulley in that spot with a proper roller bearing. Still wondering.... any of you guys been down this road before...? TIA Bill-93XJ

I had similar problems on my 99, and bought a junkyard bracket. The shaft is pressed in VERY tight on these, and the shape is very difficult to hold. You could probably get the thing apart with an arbor press, but you'd have to build some kind of jig, I think. I'm guessing that it has either two bearings or a double-row single bearing in it, but I haven't yet gotten my experimental one apart.

The bearing is a standard 6203-2RS bearing (17x40x12 with rubber seals on both sides). Very common bearing for idler pulleys and electric motors. About $2 each from various vendors on eBay or from vxb.com. NAPA wanted $30 each, btw. You can press it out of the pulley and press a new one in. Press the old one through from the front towards the back, clean up the surface a bit, a drop of loctite (green if you have it), and press the new one in the same way. I have a press, but I've also done this with a big bolt and washers, and once just using a big rubber mallet and a large socket.

Man, you are right on with the advice !! I just got off the phone with Miller Bearings in Orlando, FL and the dude echoed everything you said in your post. The junkyard part was worn out also, so I passed on that option. Will be pulling the bracket today, obtaining and pressing in the bearing tomorrow. Let's get the Jeep back on the road !!! Thanks for the excellent help.... Bill-93XJ

lawsoncl said:

The bearing is a standard 6203-2RS bearing (17x40x12 with rubber seals on both sides). Very common bearing for idler pulleys and electric motors. About $2 each from various vendors on eBay or from vxb.com. NAPA wanted $30 each, btw. You can press it out of the pulley and press a new one in. Press the old one through from the front towards the back, clean up the surface a bit, a drop of loctite (green if you have it), and press the new one in the same way. I have a press, but I've also done this with a big bolt and washers, and once just using a big rubber mallet and a large socket.

Click to expand...

In hindsight, I think we were talking about two different things. I was talking about the idler pulleys. I'm not sure the fan pulley is the same.

Yeah, now that I have the bracket out of the vehicle, it looks like if the part you mentioned is correct, there would have to be two of them in there judging by the depth. What I am talking about is the spindle that supports the main cooling fan and fan clutch. I am going to keep plugging away until this beast is done. Will post the final results here...... Bill-93XJ

I was able to get a new bracket from the dealer for $70, he had some old stock on the shelf. They do not make this bracket any more.

I'm using my old one to do a write up on a rebuild of the bracket.

The old shaft will press out of the bracket but I have been unable to get the bearing off of the old shaft. I'll keep working on it and will post a write up as soon as I'm succesfull.

Bill-93XJ said:

Yeah, now that I have the bracket out of the vehicle, it looks like if the part you mentioned is correct, there would have to be two of them in there judging by the depth. What I am talking about is the spindle that supports the main cooling fan and fan clutch. I am going to keep plugging away until this beast is done. Will post the final results here...... Bill-93XJ

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Bill, I thought that too but there is one large bearing on the shaft and it will not budge. Ive heated it with my oxy-acetylene untill it was cherry red and pressed it with a 20 ton press, no luck!

Well, this morning I went to the machine shop at the company where I work. It aint really kosher, but they will help you out with simple tasks. This is not a simple task. We put the bracket in an arbor press and the shape is very awkward and does not lend itself to being just blocked up. We were putting some mondo force down on the shaft and it kept trying to kick over to the side. To do it right, you would need to make a support fixture so the forces would all be in-line with the shaft. I just got off the phone with the local dealer parts dept and the guy 'cut me a break' and will sell me a -special order- part for 90$. I am going to wuss out and take the easy way out. Looking forward to seeing your writeup. My aunt lives in Roanoke !! Bill-93XJ

how many mile do you have on your 93? i only hear of those fan bearings going bad with north of 200,000 miles. (just curious) mike

Right around 150,000 but for a 15 year old vehicle I don't think it is a premature failure. There are miles and then there is TIME. All the rubber seals and whatnot are feeling their age about now..... Bill-93XJ

My 90' only has 150k on it, some times its not the miles but the years.

This is what I've accomplished so far on the A/C compressor bracket clutch fan spindle bearing.

I've been succesful in pressing out the bearing and shaft.




As you can see by this picture there is one large bearing on the shaft, the shaft is locktighted into the inner bearing race. I haven't been able to press it off.


Thats were I'm at, I'm considering taking the whole assembly to our machine shop at work and have them redisign the whole brearing/spindle assembly with something that would be rebuildable in the future.

I got thr same problem with my '88 with 245,000 on it. I extracted the shaft and bearing assembly from the aluminum mount.......

The shaft IS the inner race......

Any ideas? I bet there is/would be a lot of interest in a fix if the only way currently to FIX this bearing is the DEALER replacement on the entire mount.
I wonder if you can remove the fan mounting flange and then break off/out the bearing outer race/balls and cage.

Then fit up 2 ball bearings with a spacer to get the stack up lenght the same as the old assembly

ptf18 said:

I got thr same problem with my '88 with 245,000 on it. I extracted the shaft and bearing assembly from the aluminum mount.......

The shaft IS the inner race......

Any ideas? I bet there is/would be a lot of interest in a fix if the only way currently to FIX this bearing is the DEALER replacement on the entire mount.
I wonder if you can remove the fan mounting flange and then break off/out the bearing outer race/balls and cage.

Then fit up 2 ball bearings with a spacer to get the stack up lenght the same as the old assembly

Click to expand...

Thats along the lines that I'm thinking but there has to be a way to retain the whole thing in there tightly. You don't want that bugger comming apart on you. I wll do more on this during the winter when there is nothing to do outside and will post back.

Took the bearing assembly apart...E-Z.

I pressed the flange off the shaft.

I pried out the grease seals (both ends)
I then extracted the ROLLER bearing from the flange end.
I then broke out the cage holding the BALL bearings from the distant end
I then pushed all the balls together on the raceway (groove) in the outer race
I then "lifted" the shaft away from the balls and pulled the shaft out of the long outer race.

The darn thing is that I didnt really find anything wrong with any of the parts.

Im at my wits end I trying to fix this squelling/chirping noise.

2 new belts, a new WP (warranty), idler bearing sounds good ( I changed it some miles ago) PS pump seems find but the noise is more from the engine side opposite of the PS pump. And I just put in new A/C clutch bearings which now sound fine when I hand spin it.

I even removed the belt and started the engine...no squell...so its not from inside the engine.

Ive tightened the belt...loosend the hech out of the belts...nada

But this A/C bracket bearing sounded dry/rough.....untill I heated the heck out of it to remove it from the aluminum housing.....
Im thinking the seals were dry and thats what was causing the noise. As I said all the bearing parts look good...for 245K miles...

Now to "fix" this....

I hope Im not making a trip to the dealer...

ptf18,Could just be the belt, while its turning spray a small amount of silicon tire dressing on the belt both on the smooth and ribbed sides, a few drops will do, and see if it doesn't quieten down.

My spindle bracket was toast, the shaft moves on the bearing too much for comfort. Its no longer available at the dealer/OEM, but my D/C parts guy found a new/old stock on the shelf. I got lucky! I didn't take my old one apart until I knew I had a new one in my hands.

I wish you had posted some pics on that bearing removal?

Thanks. Strange thing happen with this noise. I put water on the belt and it quieted right down...untill it dried. I put some belt dressing on the belt and the noise got worse.....

The P/N for the entire a/c bracket with the shaft assembly is 53002901.

I think instead of screwing around with the old unit Im going to buy new...I need to to get the XJ running ASAP.

Im replacing the idler bearing while I got it off...gee my records show it only having 95k on the NSK replacement I put in 7 years ago....hope it wasnt the cause of all this work.

With 245k on the XJ I suppose it only hurts my wallet now that Im replacing the a/c bracket and fan assembly..