Serpentine belt position

[uss2defiant]

some of us went with gates belt tensioner w/ the 76/90.

one is smooth and one is ribbed.

 

[JBDive]

Very interesting!
Are you sure it was stock? Is there a part number on it? If it isn't OE then someone either must have put the wrong part on or at least changed the one 76mm pulley with the wrong one. What belt was or is on it now with the 90/90? Must be pretty tight if it was the factory 87.4.

My 02 was an early one (Nov 01 I think) and it had the OE 76mm plastic grooved /90mm metal flat. What's your build date? Driver side door sticker has that info.

FWIW and IMHO, I still would have gone with the intended size even if plastic. I think you are underestimating the power of that plastic. I think the spring in the tensioner will fatigue before the bearings in those pulleys wear out anyway.

All stock. I'll have to check but thinking the build is about the same time. Nobody has ever pulled that part till I did. Image attached of old part prior to pulling it off. Hard to be exact but you can see they are the same size.

Should be easy enough to release the belt and put on the other pulley if I had to but belt position is good, tension feels about right. Have to have a missed recall done so will ask them to check the tension "officially".

 

[ltd02]

All stock. I'll have to check but thinking the build is about the same time. Nobody has ever pulled that part till I did. Image attached of old part prior to pulling it off. Hard to be exact but you can see they are the same size.

Should be easy enough to release the belt and put on the other pulley if I had to but belt position is good, tension feels about right. Have to have a missed recall done so will ask them to check the tension "officially".

yeah should be easy to just swap pulleys. They do look pretty close in size in your image. The grooved pulley has that guide edge on it. I wonder if the 76mm means where the belt travels and not including that edge. I guess the edge would add 8 maybe 10mm so might look close to the smooth pulley. Some of the pics on RockAuto show the two 76mm pulleys and the grooved one does look bigger in some of them.

 

[JBDive]

Very interesting!
Are you sure it was stock? Is there a part number on it? If it isn't OE then someone either must have put the wrong part on or at least changed the one 76mm pulley with the wrong one. What belt was or is on it now with the 90/90? Must be pretty tight if it was the factory 87.4.

My 02 was an early one (Nov 01 I think) and it had the OE 76mm plastic grooved /90mm metal flat. What's your build date? Driver side door sticker has that info.

FWIW and IMHO, I still would have gone with the intended size even if plastic. I think you are underestimating the power of that plastic. I think the spring in the tensioner will fatigue before the bearings in those pulleys wear out anyway.

Build date 2-02

 

[LibertyTC]

The best tensioner is the Mopar and has received an update. #53030958AG
There is only one KJ tensioner from Mopar period.
The pulleys are composite/plastics and once heated up ....uh..ya some movement coming from the plastics not the bearings.
It would be nice to find a metal pulley !
See this thread re pulley size info too post 51- is my most recent adventure.
http://www.jeepkj.com/forum/f196/jeep-kj-liberty-gates-tensioner-belt-56405/index6.html