Troysterr

The bearings in the Vortech supercharger in my RIPP supercharger kit are worn (making a horrible grinding noise), so I needed to take it out so that I can either send it to Vortech for repair or order a new compressor. I was unable to find any information about how to do that, so, now that I've done it myself and figured it out, I thought I'd post here, in case it's useful to anyone else.

(For a lot of you, this write-up is probably totally unnecessary...you may have installed the kit yourself, or, even if you had someone else do it, you can take a quick look and know exactly what to do. This is for guys like me who don't wrench on our jeeps every weekend.)

The important thing to know is that your engine will run fine with the SC removed. When I called RIPP, the guy I spoke to assured me that they designed the kit that way. Before I removed my SC, I removed the rubber 45* coupler from the throttle body and ran the engine for a while to confirm that it's okay. Also, you should know that any bonehead can do it, even me. (Having said that, I will probably have a competent mechanic re-install it.)

There are at least two reasons that I can think of that you may want to remove your supercharger temporarily:

1. You need to replace it or send it in for repair.
2. You are on the trail or the freeway and the supercharger fails. (Can that happen?) I've always been a little paranoid about this, so I am glad to know how to remove it, just in case something happens and I have to pull it out to get home.

Here is the "kit" that you should keep with you in case you need to pull the supercharger out:

1. An OEM serpentine belt (I picked one up at the parts store for $25. You can get them cheaper online).
2. A replacement air filter solution. I grabbed a small cone filter and other parts for about $50...you can probably do better than I did.
3. A vacuum plug (I bought a package of assorted sizes for $2.49).
4. A twist tie or zip tie (to secure the air sensor).
5. Only basic tools are needed (a 3/8" socket wrench to tighten/loosen the belt tensioner, another wrench to loosen nuts and bolts, various common sockets, a flat screwdriver, etc.) Believe me, if I have them in my tool set, you probably do, too.

To remove the kit, you basically follow the relevant portions of the installation instructions, but go backwards. I won't list all of the steps, because they're mostly intuitive, but here are some key points:

1. You'll be removing all of the visible parts of the RIPP SC kit except the intercooler (if you have one) and the flat, black metal bracket that is attached to the engine block. (Actually, you'll need to detach that bracket to get the supercharger out, but you'll put it back in).
2. I removed all of the pipes and hoses from the engine bay before removing the supercharger EXCEPT the one going from the output of the supercharger to the intercooler. That hose kept the supercharger from falling into the engine bay when I had removed all of the bolts and other hoses. Almost like an extra set of hands.
3. The vacuum hose that was added during installation will need to be removed. That will leave one branch of the "T" connector open. Just put a plug on it or temporarily replace the T with a straight connector. (I chose to use a bright red plug to remind me that to reconnect it. Yeah, I'm that lame.)
4. The connector on the air sensor needs to be disconnected and secured somewhere with a twist tie or zip tie. To remove it, slide the bright red locking tab away from the sensor. That will allow you to push down on the black tab to release the connector. Honestly I don't know if having a missing air sensor is going to cause me problems. If it does, Spectre makes a tube with a hole for an air sensor. I could try adding one.
5. There are three bolts that secure the flat, black bracket to the engine block. To get the big one out (lower left), you have to remove the water pump pulley (three little bolts). It's not hard--insert a 3/8" socket wrench without a socket on it (an extension helps) into the square hole in the middle of the tensioner and pull up. That will tighten the belt enough that you can loosen the three bolts without the pulley turning.
6. Removing the serpentine belt is super easy. Just use the 3/8" socket wrench to push down on the tensioner.
7. As I mentioned before, it's easiest to remove the SC if you remove the flat, black bracket from the engine block. You'll want to remove it from the SC and put it back on the engine block unless you have the OEM bolts. The bolts that come with the SC are too long to put back in the engine block without the bracket.
8. It's not too hard to tell which nuts and bolts to remove to get the supercharger out. I goofed and removed the wrong ones a few times, but it didn't take much time to recognize my mistakes.

So, the supercharger is out, and the engine runs great without it. It's a little depressing to lose the horses. Also, the CEL is on, but it was on before I pulled the SC out. I'll reset it and see if it comes back.

Here's the air filter replacement solution I came up with:


What it looks like now:

jedg

Good job!

Dyipney

Great write-up, thank you!!

A couple follow ups:

1. What about the vacuum check valve that was installed to prevent reverse vacuum pressure? It's that bronze valve that you install after splitting the main vacuum line that sits above the plenum.
2. Is it recommended to detune the vehicle (return to stock) via the diablo tuner?
3. What about the MAP sensor and the other sensor that was attached below the throttle body? I can take photos of them if needed for reference.

Thanks again for this writeup, and yes the kit has failed on me several times. Mainly as a result of bad belt alignment between the vortech unit and the other accessory pulleys. Scary when this happens to you at freeway speeds and at the top of a freeway flyover junction! Ugh.