Possible belt problems?

tpotter108

New member
A bit of a long post but please bear with me.

Recently bought a 1997 Jeep TJ 2.5L, 4 cyl, 5 speed manual with 97,000 miles on it. This is my 3rd jeep (another TJ and a JK in the past). Anyway, about a week after I bought it I started having problems (many of which I've fixed from reading forums on here). So one day I'm driving and pull into a parking lot and I'm dumping coolant all over the ground. Figure its the hose running from the water pump back to the radiator. Replace it, still leaks. Nurse ole girl home and replace the water pump, thermostat and thermostat housing (thermostat housing 3 times cause it kept cracking). Also, threw a new belt on because the old one was cracking. Get it back on the road and while driving I would hear a screeching noise, real random as in couldn't determine a cause such as shifting or accelerating. Get to work and theres a real nasty burning smell. Maybe a burning rubber type smell? or kind of metallic smell. Figure maybe one of the pulleys was seized or the belt was too tight. I took the belt off to ensure the pulleys all spun freely. They all do. Put the belt back on and kept it a little looser. Drove home, still got the smell and screeching sound and the engine died on me twice. Both times when i had decelerating to go into a turn. Both those times transmission was in neutral and foot was off the gas. I would still be rolling with the engine off and try to restart it. Both times when I would try to turn it over twice and it always turned over on the second try.

When I open the hood the smell gets worse and it seems way hotter than it should. My temperature gauge reads slightly hotter than usual (about 220) and all my other gauges seem to be working fine. I can't find any leaking coolant either in the engine compartment or dripping onto the ground.

Im at a loss of what to try next. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance
 

This is one of those "What was the last thing you did problems" In my field I.T a problem that has just occurred is 99% of the time related to what someone else had just recently done. You changed out your water pump and replaced a belt, and I would be willing to bet that the pump is not spinning freely (still spinning but not as good as normal) which is causing your belt to get hot and smell. Pulling the belt off to check the pulleys will not check that your pump spins freely since there is no belt on it.
 
don't some water pumps spin the opposite way???? not sure but thought id ask. did you route the serpentine belt correctly?
 
Thank you both. Yeah some do spin counter clockwise and are stamped with a "R" on the impeller. Mine wasn't stamped but it does spin counter clockwise. Im going to start pulling stuff apart tonight (when it doesn't feel like 110 degrees out) and see what I can find. Thanks agin
 
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