What is happening with my Pulleys? Now my Water Pump Pulley!

[Zeppe807]

OK so please reference my previous post:
http://www.jeep-cj.com/forums/f19/power-steering-pump-pulley-issue-broke-off-17512/

So another day of hunting, but at least it waited till the end of the day. I just got on the road and heard something, and my power steering went way. I pulled over and found my water pump pulley was trashed.


I was able to make it back to the ranch, and called my Pop to come out with his truck and tow bar. Once home I called Autozone, and they said it is no longer available, and then called Jeep Speed Shop. They happen to have one available, and the Jeep has been put back together.

The new one is off a 1986, and seems much better.


I'm just glad this didn't happen last night with the wife and kids.



Has any else ever had this issue?



Cheers!
Joe Zeppe

 

[Torxhead]

Yikes! that is the first one that I have seen.

 

[mtnwhlr]

^^^x2

 

[jasonmark1993]

Are you running the factory pulley setup? Belt too tight maybe?

I saw your attached thread, and the belt routing looked funny for serpentine when you had the ratchet strap on there; not sure if thats how you run the belt too.

Do you notice any vibration at a certain rpm? I had a bent fan once that ripped off my water pump pulley. Didn't realize how much stress that little vibration was causing.

 

[Torxhead]

Zeppe807, you really seem to have a bad history with those serp belt pulleys. Installing a YJ water pump sounds interesting, I once read where they will swap, would there be any advantage?

 

[jasonmark1993]

Might be a combo of things. The pulleys do look old. I've had a lot of modified serp systems due to blowers, turbos, etc. Sometimes I struggled getting the alignment right for quite some time and would just eat belts.

Was the rest of the vehicle rusty or did that system come off a rusted out vehicle?

Id make sure that the WP and PS pumps both spin freely. Make sure the belt isn't too tight.

Even if the fan was bent causing a wp pulley failure, it doesnt explain the ps pulley. You should be able to twist the belt 90* at the longest stretch. Just past tight enough that it doesn't squeak.

I asked about the routing or if that is a factory setup because the ALT has a pretty small contact patch.

 

[csuengr]

Considering that I6 once had an AC compressor on it (replaced by an idler pulley) the belt routing is what it is. The only way to change it is to get a new alternator bracket.

These breaks are stress fractures. Think of bending a paperclip back and forth till it breaks. That is what happened to your pulleys. At some point in time there was some serious misalignment or vibration going on.

 

[Zeppe807]

Might be a combo of things. The pulleys do look old. I've had a lot of modified serp systems due to blowers, turbos, etc. Sometimes I struggled getting the alignment right for quite some time and would just eat belts.

Was the rest of the vehicle rusty or did that system come off a rusted out vehicle?

Id make sure that the WP and PS pumps both spin freely. Make sure the belt isn't too tight.

Even if the fan was bent causing a wp pulley failure, it doesnt explain the ps pulley. You should be able to twist the belt 90* at the longest stretch. Just past tight enough that it doesn't squeak.

I asked about the routing or if that is a factory setup because the ALT has a pretty small contact patch.

It is the stock routing, except that the upper right hand idler is a custom replacement for the smog pump that was in the same location, but with a larger pulley. The contact on the others, is what it is. When I originally got the Jeep it had a crazy squealing to it, and when I replaced the smog pump with the idler, it changed only a fraction. My mechanic (kind of) said I did not have enough tension on the belt, once I got on it, the noise went away. That is when the power steering pulley went. I replaced that, and got a new smaller belt so I was not at my max adjustment, aligned the pulleys as best as possible, and the noise was completely gone.

Considering that I6 once had an AC compressor on it (replaced by an idler pulley) the belt routing is what it is. The only way to change it is to get a new alternator bracket.

These breaks are stress fractures. Think of bending a paperclip back and forth till it breaks. That is what happened to your pulleys. At some point in time there was some serious misalignment or vibration going on.

I am worried that the power steering pump pulley was not aligned correctly and it may have caused this entire thing, but I am just now seeing it after more use. Like I said, I drove 160+ miles Friday, so I think you may be correct that they are stress fractures. Mild steel only can take a certain amount of cycles, before it's yielding strength is reduced.


I want to go through and check the alignment again real good and see if there is anything else I can adjust out. I will also loosen the belt until it is at the threshold of making some noise, and increase from there (without messing up the belt).



Thanks all, but I was hopping others would say that they had similar issues, so I could rest easier!

Joe Zeppe

 

[Zeppe807]

Are you running the factory pulley setup? Belt too tight maybe?

I saw your attached thread, and the belt routing looked funny for serpentine when you had the ratchet strap on there; not sure if thats how you run the belt too.

Do you notice any vibration at a certain rpm? I had a bent fan once that ripped off my water pump pulley. Didn't realize how much stress that little vibration was causing.

The ratchet strap was routed that way to get me home, it was missing the PS pump pulley. That is why it looked funny.


Joe Zeppe

 

[jasonmark1993]

That was a bitchin' field repair there!

I think the squealing is probably coming from the alt. pulley; looks like it has too small of a contact patch. Not sure how you could reroute or move things around but I'm guessing thats why you have to tighten the belt so much.

Can you ditch the smog pump idler and run from the alt. straight up to the tensioner without the belt hitting the WP pulley? If I'm looking at it correctly the idler where the smog pump was is above the alt, right?

That may give you a better contact patch on the alt. and allow you to run less tension.

Usually an alignment problem shows up as a chewed up belt. One strand of the serp belt will be chewed off or strings will start flying. If you put the belt back on and just barely put tension on it, see if the PS pump looks like its aligned. Its easy to tension so much that you pull the pump over. I did this on my jeep and had to play around with the pulley setup a little to get it right.