Squeak from serpentine belt... still

Ben Packwood

Ben Packwood

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Joined
Jan 16, 2018
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17
Location
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Hi All,

So......recently purchased '99 TJ. Squeak coming from the serp belt on start up and for about 2 minutes afterwards. Thought this was a dodgy idler pulley fixing bolt/bushing, (as the previous owner had bodged it with a dodgy replacement), but I've replaced that, along with a new belt, to no avail. Suspicious now that the only pulley with any kind of wobble is the fan, so would assume the belt is slipping on this? How hard is this to rectify? Also, just thrown it back together and alt has no charge: belt too tight/loose?

English Carpenter, living in Australia, attempting to be a mechanic in my free time, on an American car.
Don't judge me. Every day is a school day at this point.

Any advice much appreciated and welcome!!
 
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Ben Packwood said:
Hi All,

So......recently purchased '99 TJ. Squeak coming from the serp belt on start up and for about 2 minutes afterwards. Thought this was a dodgy idler pulley fixing bolt/bushing, (as the previous owner had bodged it with a dodgy replacement), but I've replaced that, along with a new belt, to no avail. Suspicious now that the only pulley with any kind of wobble is the fan, so would assume the belt is slipping on this? How hard is this to rectify? Also, just thrown it back together and alt has no charge: belt too tight/loose?

English Carpenter, living in Australia, attempting to be a mechanic in my free time, on an American car.
Don't judge me. Every day is a school day at this point.

Any advice much appreciated and welcome!!
Click to expand...

Hmm.. can you actually make the fan pulley wobble by hand?
 
KCsTJ said:
My 97 does the same thing. My squeal is just on start up, didn't have this till I did a valve job. My belt squeal is simply due to a loose belt.
Click to expand...

Got my hands on a new water pump, I think even if it doesn’t fix the squeal, it needs doing. The play on the fan pulley is too much of a concern to just leave it.

Pretty sure the belt tension is good at the minute.
 
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Ben Packwood said:
Got my hands on a new water pump, I think even if it doesn’t fix the squeal, it needs doing. The play on the fan pulley is too much of a concern to just leave it.

Pretty sure the belt tension is good at the minute.
Click to expand...

I recently developed a couple of weird squeals. Swapped the OPDA after a laughing monkey morning in January..hope the cam survived. Have to pull the OPDA and send in the camera again.

Then last weekend.. a new and interesting squeak/squeal like a pulley...woo hoo...more fun. Took off the belt and found the belt tensioner pulley had a good wobble to it. Yes!...a smoking gun! Swapped the tensioner and also the idler pulley for good measure. Crap...Nope...not the smoking gun....no change to the squeal. Now I'm looking at stuff like the water pump and poking around the power steering pump as well. Naturally, it won't do it with me standing over it playing with the throttle cable...that would be too easy. Regarding the fan, I read somewhere that the fan actually has some built in play due to the clutch but stories vary on what is too much. 12 years and 120K miles, probably time for a cooling system upgrade anyway so I got a clutch and will get a pump when Mopar is back in stock.
Good luck with yours!
 
carssuckjeepsrule said:
I recently developed a couple of weird squeals. Swapped the OPDA after a laughing monkey morning in January..hope the cam survived. Have to pull the OPDA and send in the camera again.

Then last weekend.. a new and interesting squeak/squeal like a pulley...woo hoo...more fun. Took off the belt and found the belt tensioner pulley had a good wobble to it. Yes!...a smoking gun! Swapped the tensioner and also the idler pulley for good measure. Crap...Nope...not the smoking gun....no change to the squeal. Now I'm looking at stuff like the water pump and poking around the power steering pump as well. Naturally, it won't do it with me standing over it playing with the throttle cable...that would be too easy. Regarding the fan, I read somewhere that the fan actually has some built in play due to the clutch but stories vary on what is too much. 12 years and 120K miles, probably time for a cooling system upgrade anyway so I got a clutch and will get a pump when Mopar is back in stock.
Good luck with yours!
Click to expand...
Not to sound like captain obvious, but I had the same problem with my old tj that had me pullin my hair out. The serpentine belt was routed wrong, it seriously looked right but was on wrong and fixed the squeal after a new belt,idler tensioner and plenty of swearing
 
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