Squealing

Hi all, a few months back my camshaft pulley somehow snapped right off and luckily was replaceable with no engine damage. It was towed to a garage and replaced along with the belts. Ever since then my belts have a loud squeal when starting for a minute or so. The garage replaced the belts a second time however a month on and the squealing has stated again. do you think this could be due to a pulley? Also there was also a leak in a radiator hose that sprayed fluid all over the pulleys and thats why the garage replaced the belts the first time thinking they were just dirty. I'm guessing this wasnt the case as its started again.

Hi,
Fluid on the belts will make them squeal, so let's assume that's the reason for the first time.
If it's your Pas belt it will squeal at full lock or if you move the steering when stationary. If it's the alternator belt it's more likely to squeal at start up or if you turn on all the electrical load you can, lights, heaters, rear heated window etc. It's possible it's both.
If it's only one belt it's unlikely it's the pulley, more possible is it's just not tight enough.

When I changed mine I went to the trouble of making a belt tension gauge to set the belts as per the manual. I was surprised just how tight they need to be, more than I would have given using my uncalibrated finger.
Then again you would think the garage would know this, then again they do make mistakes.

I would check the tension first before looking at the pulley.

Mike

My crankshaft pulley collapsed and chucked both belts off a couple of weeks ago, there is a post on here at

www.bigjimny.com/index.php/forum/6-jimny...just-fell-off#227328

Before that my PAS belt squealed when approaching full lock at start up, as Scimike says it isn't the belt but just not tight enough. The load is higher at start up, same as the alternator belt and might be a little damp sitting over-night. The PAS belt must have a much higher load as you approach full lock.

I also made a tension gauge and like Scimike was surprised just how tight the belts need to be. The deflection is given in the wiki, I think it is 6-9mm or the other way to check is to twist the belt at the mid-point, it should twist through 90 degrees, but no further. I checked with both methods and the new belts I put on were both too slack, once corrected, no more squealing.

My alternator is very tight on the pivot bolt, it needs a mallet to move it, but the PAS belt is adjusted with an Allen key, in my case attached to an extension tube. I found I needed a lot of pull on the extension bar to get the right tension, much more than you would think. Still the car has done 500 miles now and all is good.

It doesnt seem to be affected by steering nor electrical demand however when I startup if I just give it some high revs it gets extremely loud then disappears as the revs lower to idle. Would his mean the belts are not tight enough? I'm not very well rehearsed on engine mechanics so I'm not too sure what I'm doing, I thought the tensioner tensioned the belts automatically as needed?

It does sound like the belts are slipping. The adjusters on the Jimny are not automatic, at least not on my 2011 they aren't

The twisting method to check belt tension is really easy to do, see the following



There are plenty of other YouTube videoes.

The best place to check is from underneath as that is where the longest run is, it needs a bit of twist, but just with fingers. Alternatively use a ruler and push up/pull down on the belt, see how much it moves, it should be 6 to 9mm.

I see, so what your saying is to test the PAS belt and Alternator belts, find out which is problematic and then re tension? With the jimny tensioner do you loosen both bolts and then adjust to suit?