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?

Hi,

Yes, check them both first and see which one is slack then adjust. The alternator belt is tensioned by swinging the alternator outwards (to the left), slacken both bolts on the arm at the top and it pivots on a bolt at the bottom. Mine was very tight on the pivot bolt and had to use a mallet and block of wood to move it.

The PAS belt is tensioned by moving the tensioner pulley, it is held in with two bolts, one in the centre which holds the pulley and one off to one side which locks the tensioner in the correct position. Both bolts are 12mm and difficult to get to with the fan in place, but to remove the fan, you have to remove the radiator and I wouldn't recommend that. A 1/4" socket works well, but both of my bolts were tight and had to use a 1/2" drive to free them off, it just went in.

Is there a torque level for re tightening the bolts?

There are some torque settings in the BigJimny wiki and may be some more here

www.suzukiclubuk.co.uk/tech-specs/torque-settings

I didn't find a torque setting for the tensoiner bolts, mine were pretty tight so I put them back in slightly less tight. I didn't measure it with a torque wrench, I have the following rough guide.

Normal - will come out with a spanner (yeah right, not many of those then)
Slightly tight - will need a socket
Tight - will need a good pull on the socket (or several good pulls)
Very tight - will need a breaker bar (or perhaps a mallet)
Over tight - will need the breaker bar plus a good pull or extension (lump hammer)
Far too tight - will need the blow lamp, easing oil, long extension, lot of swearing, large lump hammer and a lot of time.

Most things I seem to have to take off for the first time are in the last three categories.

My pulley wheel was over-tight, the alternator was also very-tight to over-tight, the tensioner bolts were tight to very tight. I used a torque wrench on the pulley, but just put the tensoiner bolts in to tight.

The spare wheel for example was in the far too tight, I actually consider drilling it off or cutting the bracket. Not helped by the fact that the previous owner had put it on with a locking kit and not supplied the key. Since the wheels had no lock kit on them I assume he was unable to remove it before selling the vehicle.