Cover me boys, I'm goin' in . . . (timing belt)

[donco]

Well, as if doing the dreaded starter contacts wasn't enough, I'm starting the even more dreaded timing belt tonite. Mama is gone for the week so have 'til Sunday to get it right. Two nasty chores in the same week, should be good for "newbie of the week" ;p

I've broused enough of the web to tackle this one & at 100k miles, it's now or never. Shop bid $1000 & the bimmer needs new tires, so I figured I better dust off the service manual & bruise a few knuckles. Wish me luck. I'll post pic's when I'm done & ask questions in the meanwhile. (oops -- prolly easier to do the belt than to post pic's in this format)

Cheers!

donco
00 Landcruiser, 100k
92 735i 5-spd, 172k
58 356A 1600 Super, 320k


(for anyone interested in BMW repairs):
www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/page_2.htm

 

[tabraha]

Mmmmmm..... '58 1600 Super ..... screw pics of the timing belt!! I wanna see the 356!

 

[e9999]

if you take pics and movies of the belt change, and make DVDs, and sell them here at cost, you'll be a hero, and I'll give you a major sticky (that's a thread, you perv! ) as a reward!

 

[donco]

timing belt

I made a bit of headway tonite, took about 2 hr's to get approx. 1/2 way torn down:


http://www.nmia.com/~dgnrg/ttb3b.jpg


- removed skid pan
- drained coolant
- removed radiator hoses
- removed fan & shroud & expansion tank
- removed timing belt covers, belt looks remarkably good for 100k miles


stopped for the nite


on the agenda tomorrow nite:


- remove fan shaft support bracket
- remove the serpentine belt tensioner bracket
- remove a/c compressor & mounting bracket
- loosen crank pulley bolt
- make a locking device for the flywheel
- make some unobstructive locking brackets for the cam cogs
- make a little dammit for retracting the t-belt tensioner


by then, should be ready to remove/replace belt.

 

[richg]

I compiled some tips that may help you here:

https://forum.ih8mud.com/showpost.php?p=812211&postcount=32

There are more tips in that thread as well

You may want to read that as:

-an impact gun can knock the crank pulley loose, so no need to build any tools
-you don't need to loosen the cam gears unless you are changing the seals (and if you do need to loosen them, do it with the impact gun)
-a/c compressor doesn't need to be removed

rich

 

[Gene3x]

How did it turn out? How long did it take?

 

[donco]

timing belt

How did it turn out? How long did it take?

It turned out very well, thanks. I can't say it's an easy job since it is involved and takes awhile & requires taking a bunch of stuff off to get to the belt, but on the other hand, it wasn't difficult and is very intuitive. If it weren't for needing torque specs, the job could be done without a shop manual.

I spent maybe a total of 12 hrs on it since I spread it over 2 evenings and most of Saturday and was fighting a bad cold most of the time. Being this was my 1st timing belt ever, I think I did ok with it. There is abolutely no ambiguity about lining up the timing marks and tick marks on the new belt, very obvious. The only thing that threw me was the manual said to rotate the crank 2 full turns and verify the marks still line up, which they didn't, or so I thought. The crank & cam index marks lined up with the mark on the heads & TDC but the marks on the belt had advanced -- duh! the crank cog has 24 teeth, the cams have 48 teeth, but the belt has 211 teeth so the belt marks will only line up once with every 211x24 = 2954 crank revolutions. I bolted it up and called it good. She runs smooth as silk. I replaced both of the idlers but used the same hydraulic tensioner, there were no signs of leaks. I didn't replace the cam seals either, everything was clean except for indications of coolant weeping on the back of the water pump and had already bought a new one anyway, but the old w-p shaft is still snug, can't say the weeping was recent.

Turns out the fixtures I made to hold the cams from rotating weren't necessary, the cams won't rotate on their own when the crank is at 50 degrees past TDC, unless one were to deliberately turn them.

Rather than pre-compress & pin the tensioner, I used the 2 mounting bolts to pull it back in, lightly tapping the tensioner with a rubber mallet every so often until the bolts seated all the way. I made a device to keep the harmonic balancer from rotating when re-torquing it to the prescribed 181 ft-lb. Bucking a breaker bar on the chassis rail and bumping the starter works great for loosening the crank bolt.

A couple other notes, there are slots in the p-s pulley that provide access thru the middle for taking the p-s pump off so no need to remove the pulley. The p-s pump has to move out of the way to pull the alternator off to get the serpentine belt tensioner off. Also, since I planned ahead of time to use the starter to "bump" the crank bolt off (did I say it works slick!), I never disconnected the battery during the whole job, and when I had it all back together & started it for the 1st time, it threw a CEL light, most likely from using the starter while the cam position sensor connector was disconnected. Disconnecting the battery for a few minutes got rid of the CEL and all is good! Tonight I do the sparkplugs, NGK IFR6T11 (4589), $7.99 ea. at Checker's (CSK - Checker-Schucks-Kragen). The original plugs that are still in it are NGK IFR6A11, don't know what the difference is, web sources show the 6A's as an obsolete spec & the 6T's as the present OEM recommended spec.

Cheers!

Sorry to be so long-winded. E-mail me off-line & I have another .pdf step-by-step instruction with diagrams for the entire timing belt job.

 

[Gene3x]

Not long winded... damn good info.