Serpentine Belt Prob!

[Cherokeekid88]

So i had my belt replaced when i first got the jeep which was about a year ago, and then i noticed it was tearing on the sides so i got it replaced, but i noticed that the tears are being caused by something catching it or something, so i got it replaced yesterday with a new belt saturday and then yesterday i was driving home and i heard a ticking noise, sounded like gravel being thrown up, thought i just hit some gravel on the raod and my tires were throwing it up, but i nticed it when i pulled in, and got out and popped my hood and some ripped about a 4 inch long piece of my belt and it was flapping around inside there, so i cut it just so i could take it over to my buddys house to have him look at it, well on the way to school this morning it started again, and tore another peice about the same length and it was flapping around hitting my air filter box, so i had it towed over to his house to have him look at it after work, but was wondering what could cause that to happen? think maybe it was a bad belt, i mean the other was tearing on the sides but it was just the wear and tear and belt takes, it doesnt look like its hitting anything in the rotation, but he said it could possibly be a pulley going bad?? any help would be much appreciated. thanks

 

[josh89xj]

Harmonic balancer issue.Check it out and see how the dampaner inside the balancer for wear and check it to make sure the balancer has not sunken in away from the alingment it should be with the rest of the pulleys.I kept going thru belts because of that,the balancer looked good until i pulled it to realize it was shredded inside.Put a new one on for 40.00 and that was a yr ago,not so much as a mouse fart of of it since.

 

[RichP]

I have noticed you are 'having it done', OK, have the harmoic balancer checked, it is at the bottom of the motor, the bottom pulley attached to the crank shaft, it has a rubber type center and they do go bad. When they do they generally track in towards the motor. This tears up the serp belt...

 

[Cherokeekid88]

ok my buddy was looking at it and took the belt off and put it back on and said that the belt was coming off track at the backside of the crankshaft pulley. He also said that the water pump pulley felt loose without the belt and that he could move the water pump shaft with his hands, but no visible water leaks from the pump

 

[RichP]

ok my buddy was looking at it and took the belt off and put it back on and said that the belt was coming off track at the backside of the crankshaft pulley. He also said that the water pump pulley felt loose without the belt and that he could move the water pump shaft with his hands, but no visible water leaks from the pump

Sounds like the harmoic balancer is walking forward, soon it will start damaging the radiator.
Time for an R&R, hit the parts store and get a harmonic balancer, NEW [not rebuilt] water pump, idler pulley [idler pulley is the one that adjusts the belt tension, they wear out as they are just a greased sealed bearing], new belt, two gallons of prestone anti-freeze and two gallons of DISTILLED water, new radiator pressure cap and a thermostat w/gasket. It's about a 2 hour job. It's pretty straight forward, once the belt, water pump and stuff are out of the way the HB is pretty easy. Just be aware it has a woodriff key in it and if you don't know what that is you need to find out what it is and what it does.
This is one of the few times I'd recommend a chiltons or haynes manual, factory service manual is much better and I recommend that hands down over the other two.. I just get the feeling you don't do alot of your own work...

 

[XgeekstarX]

last time my belt did that it grabbed the tranny cooler line and pulled it into the balancer dumping about a gallon of tranny fluid all over the highway.

 

[old_man]

A very common problem is that people do not replace the bolt on the back of the alternator allowing it to not run perpendicular. The same can happen if the PS pump isn't bolted correctly as well.

 

[DenLip]

So i had my belt replaced when i first got the jeep which was about a year ago, and then i noticed it was tearing on the sides so i got it replaced, but i noticed that the tears are being caused by something catching it or something, so i got it replaced yesterday with a new belt saturday and then yesterday i was driving home and i heard a ticking noise, sounded like gravel being thrown up, thought i just hit some gravel on the raod and my tires were throwing it up, but i nticed it when i pulled in, and got out and popped my hood and some ripped about a 4 inch long piece of my belt and it was flapping around inside there

Since this seems to have started just recently... my money is on the harmonic balancer as well. But it could technically be the already-suspect water pump. Pretty much any pulley that's out of alignment could cause it.

Den