Need help with serpentine belt

[doc54]

 

[Ante_Up]

Well hell... From the outside looking in, it looks just like mine. Can you feel behind the idler bracket and see if there are threads left on the adjustment bolt? I know when I removed mine, I still had maybe an 1/2 to an inch of threads showing to where I couldn't loosened it up even more, although I didn't need to

 

[JKP]

All of that looks stock. It almost has to be the adjuster.

My YJ has the adjuster on the pwr steering pump bracket, so I'm not familiar with exactly how yours works on the pulley.

 

[tworley]

If the original fit and all you did was change the pump then you are routing it wrong and/or the adjuster isn't loose enough.

 

[Jerry Bransford]

You need to get a second set of eyes on the problem that have experience. Something is not right, this job should not be hard.

 

[Andy-WhiteTJ]

I recently had the same issue. It was like the belt was a 1/4" too short. I finally had to have the belt just about where it needed to be on the power steering pulley and had my daughter just bump the key to start it. Never had issues before changing belt. I would bet manufacturing has looser tolerances that we think.

 

[doc54]

I brought my Jeep to the mechanic and turns out one of the idler pulleys had previously been replaced with a larger one. Got a new, correct size, pulley installed and the belt fit right on. Thank you all so much for the help.

 

[NashvilleTJ]

Yeah something must be up, I just replaced the belt on my 97 with zero issues. Can you compare length of old belt with new belt? Also, use the diagram above to confirm routing. Other than that, maybe wrong idler pulley(s) size?

Called it!