Don't know where my first post disappeared to but to re-hash: Old battery wasn't cranking, bought new one. Worked great, then last weekend my wife went to drive the 05 CRD, went about a block, all the warning lights came on, the dash then died completely, Jeep died. I went out the next day thought it may be battery, jumped it, drove about 1/4 of a mile, it did it all again. Towed it back to the house, posted question here. The only code I could get out of it was 0610 control module vehicle options malfunction.

Overall response: Get the alternator checked (I did, it failed, ordered a new one, installed it, will come back to this), check the battery. Battery was around 50% (Diehard Platinum Group 34), put it on charge.

Status: Battery all charged up, alternator installed... except I cannot get the serpentine belt back on. I relieved the tension with a 15mm wrench, but I can't seem to muscle it back onto the idler below the alternator pulley. Am I missing something? I'd like to test it out this weekend and see if it fixed the issue.

BTW, where do all the things go that you drop down into the engine well? It's like a black hole, I retrieved a couple of things with a magnet, but the rest just disappeared.

Lol, the black hole on your crd in action. I bet everything is getting trapped between the engine and engine shield. You may have to get under the jeep and unscrew the 4 bolts to take the shield out. Before that, try fishing them with a telescopic magnetic "tool catcher", sorry, can't find a better name, you buy it for few bucks from any autoparts store, looks like a telescopic antenna with a magnet on the end. On the top or the shield is a spongy insulation and the oil pan is aluminum, so you may be lucky, unless you lost the tool between the sponge and the shield. I hate when that happens, I think I also have some hex bits lost in there that I didn't feel like retrieving.

Regarding belt tensioner, it would help to have a long wrench or a long pipe to extend your wrench and give you more torque. I wasn't strong enough either to just do it with the standard 5-6 inch long wrench, so I used a pipe.

_________________
2005 kj CRD, samco, suncoast tc, provent, Kennedy lift pump, GDE ECO full torque, 2nd gen filter head, 245/70/16 a/t tires, mopar light bar, fumoto oil valve, OEM Skid Plates, ARB Front bumper and HD OME, tru cool LPD47391 40k GVW tranny cooler (stock cooler delete), FF Dynamics e-fan and shroud, rocker arms replaced, HDS2 190F thermostat.

Belt should slide onto either idler pulley (not one of the "lipped" pulleys as neither the serp or TB tensioner will allow enough slack to do that) rather easily if a) you use, as noted, a longer handle tool (I used a 16" 1/2" drive breaker bar with no trouble) and b) the belt is fully seated (an extra set of hands helps) on all the other things it passes over.

_________________
Sold to LOST member my 05 Ltd, GDE Stg II turbo + TCM tune, SunCoast TC w. Transgo kit, Steiger window regulators, Samcos, Fumoto valve, 2nd gen filter head with Lub. Spec. bleeder, Hayden clutch & 11 blade fan, inverted spare, P-1 battery, BF Goodrich Long Trail TAs, Etecno1 glow plugs, timing belt at 50K miles/8 yrs

I don't think you can use any drive with socket if you have the fan mounted on. Usually you have to take that out but I have the shroud mod, and, in my case, I played the lazy role when I changed the alternator .

_________________
2005 kj CRD, samco, suncoast tc, provent, Kennedy lift pump, GDE ECO full torque, 2nd gen filter head, 245/70/16 a/t tires, mopar light bar, fumoto oil valve, OEM Skid Plates, ARB Front bumper and HD OME, tru cool LPD47391 40k GVW tranny cooler (stock cooler delete), FF Dynamics e-fan and shroud, rocker arms replaced, HDS2 190F thermostat.

Thanks for the tips, my neighbor & I finally got things in place, seems to be working like a charm. That serpentine belt is a supreme pain, to say the least.