Belt chirps

[808Manche]

Hey guys, been a follower of this site since the manche I own has been handed down to me from my father in law. Learned loads of things from these forums thanks to you all. I've taken on the responsibility of keeping this baby running and in the family for the next generation (my daughter) to eventually own (well possibly own if I for some reason ever decide I'm tired of working on it which is how it was handed to me). I’ve recently changed the harmonic balancer(tightened to torque specs w/new belt(only because she started chirping real bad) tightened nice and tight like what I’ve read and now just a loud chirp in the morning and softer chirps through out the day) and now the belts been chirping since. I’ve changed the waterpump hoping to solve the problem thinking I had a bad bearing w/ no success. Then changed the idler pulley today and she seems to still chirp. I’ve been having a hard time finding a water pump pulley on island to swap that out since everything else on the serp belt(minus the clutch fan pulley) has been replaced and leads me to believe its what is causing the issue. Waterpump pulley has been a little off balance since I’ve owned it but has never chirped like this until I replaced the harmonic balancer which was causing a knocking noise from the rubber hitting the clutch fan. Now my question is...should I be looking to change the water pump pulley or buying a shorter belt and bypassing the mechanical fan clutch pulley due to bad bearings w/ an electronic fan swap? Or do you think the gator back belts could solve the issue...and for how long would that last? This is the only vehicle I’ve ever really worked on besides an oil change and brakes on my old vehicle so I’m basically a new to auto mechanics. Any help will be appreciated. Mahalos in advance 🤙🏼

[MuddFoot]

What kind of belt is it? When you look from the side are the pulleys straight? When I was a auto tech on belts that had a chirp we would put a dab of dielectric grease on both sides of the belt usually would solve the issue. It was a tsb on late 90s Ford's.

Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk

[kryptronic]

Spray some water on the belt when running.  If it stops chirping you've got a belt slip issue probably due to pulley alignment being off.  I ran into a similar issue and my solution ended up pretty simple.  I had to remove two spacer washers from the alternator to get that pulley in line, and I had to move the power steering pulley back about 1/8" to situate it very close to the pump.  Beyond that, I used a gator belt (now named Continental) and tensioned the belt properly.  I bet you have one or more pulleys slightly off.  I chased the chirp for about 4 months.  Good luck.

[808Manche]

9 hours ago, MuddFoot said:

What kind of belt is it? When you look from the side are the pulleys straight? When I was a auto tech on belts that had a chirp we would put a dab of dielectric grease on both sides of the belt usually would solve the issue. It was a tsb on late 90s Ford's.

Sent from my Z982 using Tapatalk
 

Thanks for responding, Its a cheap belt I got from Autozone.  The only pulley that wobbles is the waterpump pulley. I'm assuming thats the culprit and going to head to the junkyard today in hopes of finding a usable one. I might try your remedy if I can’t find one in the yard

[808Manche]

8 hours ago, kryptronic said:

Spray some water on the belt when running.  If it stops chirping you've got a belt slip issue probably due to pulley alignment being off.  I ran into a similar issue and my solution ended up pretty simple.  I had to remove two spacer washers from the alternator to get that pulley in line, and I had to move the power steering pulley back about 1/8" to situate it very close to the pump.  Beyond that, I used a gator belt (now named Continental) and tensioned the belt properly.  I bet you have one or more pulleys slightly off.  I chased the chirp for about 4 months.  Good luck.

Thanks for the response, I’ve tried the water on the belt and it does stop. I do have a slight wobble on the waterpump pulley so gonna head to the junkyard today in search of one. If I can't find one or if the used new pulley don’t solve the issue I’m gonna try the dielectric grease technique until I find out which pulley is off. Is there a solid technique to finding misaligned pulleys or just gotta watch the belt?

[kryptronic]

23 minutes ago, 808Manche said:

Is there a solid technique to finding misaligned pulleys or just gotta watch the belt?

 

I've seen references to 'laser alignment' as the way to do it, but I used a 24" square metal rule, and eyeballed it for the most part.

 

Look for the belt being further forward/rearward on opposite sides of each pulley, then trace the issue once you see it.  You're basically looking for the belt travelling diagonally in some fashion across one or more pulleys.  Everything has to be straight on each pulley, and being just 1/16" off on any pulley will cause the belt to chirp as it slips over the pulley.

 

It took me a couple tries.  At first I thought I fixed it after moving the power steering pump pulley back, but the chirp came back a week later.  I was thrilled to no end.  I noticed when looking at it the second time that the alternator pulley was sitting out too far, so I had to move that too.

 

In my case, the PO swapped in a newer motor before I bought the MJ.  I'm assuming they installed some of the original motor's accessories without lining everything up properly.

 

Sometimes I feel like a detective when looking at these old Jeeps and trying to figure out what was done, when, and why (too many times).

[MJCARENA]

You said that the mechanical fan pulley has a bad bearing. Maybe it is putting drag on the belt and making it chirp.

[big66440]

6 hours ago, MJCARENA said:

You said that the mechanical fan pulley has a bad bearing. Maybe it is putting drag on the belt and making it chirp.

If this is the case there's a DIY with pics on this forum (done by yours truly) that shows how to replace the bearing itself  and not the complete bracket. 

[Motorhead X]

After everything lines up, if it still chirps, consider buying a better belt. I had a budget one from Autozone that was slipping no matter what I tried. I think I went with a Gates.

[808Manche]

On 1/12/2019 at 12:01 PM, kryptronic said:

 

I've seen references to 'laser alignment' as the way to do it, but I used a 24" square metal rule, and eyeballed it for the most part.

 

Look for the belt being further forward/rearward on opposite sides of each pulley, then trace the issue once you see it.  You're basically looking for the belt travelling diagonally in some fashion across one or more pulleys.  Everything has to be straight on each pulley, and being just 1/16" off on any pulley will cause the belt to chirp as it slips over the pulley.

 

It took me a couple tries.  At first I thought I fixed it after moving the power steering pump pulley back, but the chirp came back a week later.  I was thrilled to no end.  I noticed when looking at it the second time that the alternator pulley was sitting out too far, so I had to move that too.

 

In my case, the PO swapped in a newer motor before I bought the MJ.  I'm assuming they installed some of the original motor's accessories without lining everything up properly.

 

Sometimes I feel like a detective when looking at these old Jeeps and trying to figure out what was done, when, and why (too many times).

Thanks for the input. I’ll be checking the alignment this afternoon 

[808Manche]

22 hours ago, MJCARENA said:

You said that the mechanical fan pulley has a bad bearing. Maybe it is putting drag on the belt and making it chirp.

That I’m not sure but before I swapped the clutch The fan did spin freely vs after the swap it has some resistance. Is it supposed to spin freely or have some resistance? Also the longer I drive it the chirp isn’t nearly as noticeable. Any input helps as I'm new to auto machanics

[808Manche]

12 hours ago, bluenotenick said:

After everything lines up, if it still chirps, consider buying a better belt. I had a budget one from Autozone that was slipping no matter what I tried. I think I went with a Gates.

I will definitely look into a better belt. I bought the cheapest one from them

[808Manche]

16 hours ago, big66440 said:

If this is the case there's a DIY with pics on this forum (done by yours truly) that shows how to replace the bearing itself  and not the complete bracket. 

Thank you. If it comes down to that I think I'm going to try the mechanical fan bypass with a shorter belt and electronic fans and shroud. Quick question though, is the fan supposed to spin freely? Before swapping the fan clutch it spun freely and would spin a few full rotations and now after swap it spins maybe about half and stops. Is that normal?

[PIKE]

You will never know if your belt is correct unless you use one of these.

 

http://www.daycoproducts.com/dayco%C2%AE-belt-tension-gauges

 

http://www.daycoproducts.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/3/1378ea57bf6d09e5f72ce92bb8eff3ce/documents/belt_tension_recommendations__rev._4.18.13_.pdf

 

Other wise your guessing.

 

Hope this helps.