How to change a serpentine belt on a 1996 Cherokee in 70 steps and get plenty of exercise doing it.
1. Walk out to Jeep, unlock door and open hood.
2. Walk to front of Jeep, raise and prop hood open.
3. Look at the situation.
4. Notice that upper radiator hose is leaking slightly.
5. Walk to shed, get screwdriver.
6. Walk to Jeep, tighten hose clamps.
7. Walk to shed, drop off screwdriver and pick up Chiltons manual and new belt.
8. Walk into house and sit at desk to find and read section on changing serpentine belt.
9. Walk to shed, get 13mm socket and ratchet, as specified in Chiltons manual.
10. Walk to Jeep with tools, new belt and manual.
11. Notice that the label that has the belt routing diagram is missing, so walk to house to get Sharpie.
12. Walk to Jeep and draw sketch of belt route on the metal part above the radiator.
13. Look for power steering pump bolts as shown in Chiltorns manual, especially the adjusting bolt. Do not find the adjusting bolt.
14. Notice that the idler below the power steering pump has an adjustment bolt on it, not shown or referred to in Chiltons manual.
15. Try to put 13mm socket on bolt.
16. Walk to shed and trade 13mm socket for 15mm socket, extension and WD40.
17. Walk to Jeep and spray adjustment bolt behind bracket with WD40.
18. Back off the adjustment bolt, noticing that the idler pulley is not moving.
19. Retighten adjustment bolt.
20. Walk to shed to get 13mm open end wrench to loosen bolt in center of pulley.
21. Walk to Jeep with wrench.
22. Walk to shed to exchange 13mm open end wrench for entire wrench set in handy carrying pouch.
23. Walk to Jeep with pouch of wrenches.
24. Open pouch to find that it skips 15mm.
25. Walk to shed to exchange pouch for 15mm open end wrench.
26. Dig for wrench in other toolbox.
27. Walk to Jeep with 15mm wrench.
28. Try to break bolt in center of idler pulley loose.
29. Walk to shed to look for a pipe or something to use as a cheater bar for leverage.
30. Unbolt handle from floor jack and separate into two sections.
31. Walk to Jeep with the section of handle that will fit over the box end of wrench.
32. Find out that you can’t fit the jack handle between the auxiliary fan shroud and the power steering pump pulley so toss jack handle aside.
33. Reef on bolt as hard as you can with short 15mm wrench.
34. Rest.
35. Reef on bolt as hard as you can with short 15mm wrench.
36. Rest
37. Reef on bolt as hard as you can with short 15mm wrench.
38. Loosen bolt two complete turns.
39. Using socket and ratchet, loosen adjustment bolt until belt is loose.
40. Remove old serpentine belt, pinching finger between power steering pump pulley and auxiliary fan shroud in the process.
41. Remove new belt from packaging sleeve and try to untwist it.
42. Untwist it again.
43. Hold old belt and new belt together, notice that old belt seems quite a bit longer than new one.
44. Examine old belt for any markings to indicate part number or size, but don’t find any because they’ve all rubbed off long ago.
45. Decide to try to put it on anyway; if it doesn’t fit you can always take it off, put the old one back on and drive back to the auto parts store you bought the belt from last year.
46. Try to thread new belt over all pulleys.
47. Wish you had a third hand.
48. Untwist slack part of belt.
49. Go underneath Jeep and put belt over crankshaft pulley.
50. Notice that antifreeze is dripping from front of engine, lower radiator hose and sway bar. More antifreeze than the loose upper radiator hose clamp should have accounted for. Hope your water pump isn’t going out.
51. Get up, stand in front of Jeep, untwist slack part of belt again and try to put belt over alternator pulley from the top.
52. Notice that you missed one pulley in your drawing, the one between the A/C compressor and the alternator. It drives the fan.
53. Try to logically deduce which way the fan should turn, because it looks like the belt could take two different paths at this point.
54. Try to pull belt onto the fan pulley.
55. Remove belt from water pump pulley to allow enough slack to put belt on fan pulley.
56. Untwist belt again and put it back on A/C compressor pulley.
57. Hold belt on A/C compressor pulley with one hand while putting belt on fan pulley with the other.
58. Put belt back on alternator pulley again.
59. Put belt back on water pump pulley.
60. Using ratchet and socket, tighten adjusting bolt on idler pulley to tighten belt.
61. Check tension and tighten bolt in center of idler pulley with 15mm wrench.
62. Remove tools and abandoned Chiltons manual from engine bay.
63. Walk around to driver’s door and start engine.
64. Walk back to front of Jeep and observe belt.
65. Hold hand behind fan to make sure air flow is correct, hoping you got it right and don’t have to reroute the belt.
66. Put old belt into packaging sleeve to keep as spare.
67. Walk back to driver’s door and shut off engine.
68. Walk to front, close hood, pick up tools, old belt, jack handle and Chiltons manual.
69. Walk to shed and replace tools and manual. Put old belt in parts box.
70. Decide to put jack handle back together and back on jack later. This will allow you to lose bolts in the meantime.
Total time to replace serpentine belt: 2 hours.
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How to change a serpentine belt on a 1996 Cherokee in 70 steps and get plenty of exer
while changing.....and one for after.
great "writeup". will read again when i feel my life isn't going right 
Wasn't any better on my '90 XJ - and the Chiltons manual was sort of 
that puts my 3 1/2 hours to shame...... but hey, its done, you didn't pay for labor, and you have that feeling of accomplishment that only comes from screwing up your vehicles yourself. 
