Bullseye240
Adventurer
[SUP][/SUP] SO my 06 LJ Rubicon started making a very annoying belt squeak when it rained or whenever the humidity was high. I tried a new shorter belt thinking that it would help increase tension and eliminate the squeak, no luck. I stopped by a local parts store and asked for some belt dressing as a last resort even though I knew it wasn't recommended for serp belts. The parts guy clued me into what was the root cause which I hadn't considered, the pulleys after 150,000 miles had worn down and the points of the ribs on the inside of the belt were contacting the bottom of the grooves. The result was that they lifted the rib enough that the sides were no longer in contact with the sides of the grooves reducing the "contact patch" and lowering the coefficient of friction allowing the belt to slip and make the worlds most annoying sound.
This got me to thinking of a possible way to extend the life of the system without spending a bunch of money replacing the AC, power steering, alternator and crankshaft pulleys. I decided that it just may be possible to remove the tips of the ribs without reducing the effective life of the belt. To accomplish this I too a strip of 3/4" wide by 1/8" thick and 6" long strip of aluminum with a piece of 150 grit sand paper taped to it and held it under the running engine applying gentle pressure to sand off the tips. Within seconds of this the noise stopped. I poured some water on the belt to see if it started squeaking again and no noise.
After stopping the engine I did a quick visual inspection and decided that it looked no worse for the literal wear I had just enforced upon the offending noise maker. Considering these belts have generally proven to me that they wear well for a long service life I don't think what I did will reduce it life expectancy a significant amount. I do plan on replacing the pulleys one at a time over the next few months to break up the cost a little but better. I am also curious to see if the "fix" will last very long or not. Thoughts on the whole backyard engineering service procedure?
This got me to thinking of a possible way to extend the life of the system without spending a bunch of money replacing the AC, power steering, alternator and crankshaft pulleys. I decided that it just may be possible to remove the tips of the ribs without reducing the effective life of the belt. To accomplish this I too a strip of 3/4" wide by 1/8" thick and 6" long strip of aluminum with a piece of 150 grit sand paper taped to it and held it under the running engine applying gentle pressure to sand off the tips. Within seconds of this the noise stopped. I poured some water on the belt to see if it started squeaking again and no noise.
After stopping the engine I did a quick visual inspection and decided that it looked no worse for the literal wear I had just enforced upon the offending noise maker. Considering these belts have generally proven to me that they wear well for a long service life I don't think what I did will reduce it life expectancy a significant amount. I do plan on replacing the pulleys one at a time over the next few months to break up the cost a little but better. I am also curious to see if the "fix" will last very long or not. Thoughts on the whole backyard engineering service procedure?