Cost myself unneeded Repairs by not paying attention to the details

jeeeep

jeeeep

Hooked
It rained like hell here last night so I decided to go play in the water and I hit a big enough puddle my serpentine belt came off. however, I don't think it was the water that knocked it off. I think it was close to coming off already from the noises I've been hearing the last couple weeks.

Bought a new belt put it on and I started hearing this clicking noise right by the steering pump. Was able to get it home started inspecting things and went through the routine to check the pulleys and noticed when I relaxed tension on the belt tensioner it got quiet.
Went out bought a replacement pulley, no good, replaced the whole tensioner assembly, still no good.

I decided it must be the psc steering pump so I bought a replacement, went through the messy job of swapping it out, put everything back together and it was still making the clicking noise!!!

Only difference this time was I could actually see the belt slapping on the tensioner.

Turns out the belt they sold me last night which is supposed to fit, was too long.
Did some searching and found the length of the belt from manufacturer to manufacturer varies about 1" to 1.5" difference.

Found a shorter belt put it on everything's quiet and working like it should be.

So because I was being a dumbass last night and in a hurry today to get this resolved it cost me a new steering pump which I'm not going to take off again.
I'll keep the other as an extra.

I want to thank PSC for helping me out, I drove out to their location and picked everything up I needed.
When I get more time I'm going to redo the cooling. the trip out to buy parts wasn't a total fail.

:doh: :doh: :doh:li
 
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benatc1

benatc1

Hooked
man that's a bummer. glad you eventually found it. I find it refreshing when people also post up their not so proud experiences, may help the next guy in the same situation

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jeeeep

jeeeep

Hooked
dirtdonthurt said:
Wow a lot of headache. I see the tensioner is a pain and should probably be replaced when the belt is changed


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Click to expand...

actually the tensioner was fine, it was at it's max lift with the too long belt and I didn't notice because I was focused on the pump. Only difference was the new one was a bit stiffer which made the belt slap more visible. with the old unit the belt was slapping the underside of the steering pump which is why it also sounded like the noise was coming direct from the pump.

after replacing it even the new tensioner was also pointing up too much, if I let off the tension it would be fine - that was the biggest clue I missed in the beginning.

Once I eased the tension it put the belt in a straighter path to the steering pump and all was good, too much lift from the tensioner and the belt was creating more of an "S" laying back shape .

Also, the new tensioner was a bit stiffer which made the belt slap visible on the tensioner.

also should have clued in when I remove the belt and spun the pump the noise wasn't there, just the normal click noise when it gets moved back and forth. I'm guessing because the belt was slapping the underside of the pump, when the slack reached the top the slack would snap and cause the pump the go from a stop to start fast enough it sounded like it was clicking.

all in all I am glad I figured it out and now will order some extra belts to have on hand. the one I bought only has a 1yr warranty and there was only 1 autozone in my area that had 1.

I checked all the auto-part stores near me and they all had the longer belt.

what's crazy to me is all the various lengths I found were tagged as OEM replacement and would fit my Jeep :thinking:
 
Journeyman

Journeyman

New member
What a headache! I had no idea there's a variance in replacements.
I've actually been thinking about the belt on my jk. It's never given me any reason to doubt it, but the wife and I camp pretty far from civilization most of the time and I always try to be prepared, gas, oil, tools etc.
But for some reason having a spare belt never crossed my mind till recently. Definitely going to add that to my list!


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Ddays

Ddays

Hooked
Is there any other part out there that gets screwed up worse than buying belts? It's happened to me more times than I can count over the years that I get home and, nope, wrong goddam belt.
Go back to the store and its always something like, "Oh, you have a 2014, well that year takes a different belt than all the others" Yeah, right. CYA.

Glad you posted this up - I'm gonna go check the length of my spare I keep. That'd be my luck to have one break and my replacement isn't the correct length...
 
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