chewed up belt

ok so the other day i went to start up my cherokee and once it started i heard a noise that was like crunch crunch snap and so i turned off the engine, popped the hood and noticed that the belt that goes from the alternator to the engine had been chopped up on the radiator fan and tangled itself in it. there is about 6/8 of the belt remaining in place, i was wondering what may of caused this and if i am able to drive a short distance to get it repaired

Serpentine belts only get chewed up either because they were too slack to begin with or, much more likely, a pulley has become wobbly and thrown the belt off. The crank pulley can separate between the inner and outer part so look there first. If it looks OK, check all the other pulleys to see if any of them wobble.

ok, so would i be able to drive it somewhere near to get it repaired, and if the belt comes off would i still be able to drive it or would that damage the engine?

if the belt was to fall off i would immediately stop. the alternator will stop and you will run off battery. and you will have no power steering. but most of all no coolant flow so overheating is immanent.

Eyeball everything and see which pully is out of alignment, and check your idlers to see if the bearings haven't seized (I've had that happen.)

If it's an ilder pully bearing, you can usually get a new one locally, and all you need to change it is a shop vice. If it's a pully out of alignment, it's usually the harmonic damper (big honkin' pully bottom front,) which wants repalcing - which can be DIY in a couple hours or so. Might as well change the front main seal while you're about it - it's just a good idea.

Parts? Whatever a new belt goes for (about $25-30, around here,) figure $5 or so for the ilder bearing, or ~$50 for a new HD. You'll want a HD puller if you don't have one (~$20,) and you can install the new one with a 1/2"-20 bolt and a stack of washers (~$5 - you'll need bolts in a couple different lengths.) If you do a search, I've covered the HD replacement in a bit more detail - so check it out.

It's also worth checking the pully on the front of your air conditioning compressor - it may have frozen as well. Haven't had to replace that one yet, so no good advice from me. I'm sure someone else here has, tho - and I think I've seen it covered in the last fortnight or so...

5-90

alright so i figured out what the problem was, the owner before me put it on wrong and all i had to do was get a new belt.
thanks for the tips anyways guys