Quick and dirty tbelt swap

[imdrax]

Well my tbelt has been grooved from an oil pan bolt, A full rebuild and timing belt job was done about 3k miles ago. Im swapping the belt today and was curious if when i get to the point of un-tensioning the belt can i just rotate the tensioner, slip the belt off, and then slip my new belt on?

Keeping all marks the same, I would think i wouldnt need to check the balance shaft phase or retension the bbelt. Or do you think I NEED to compress the autotensioner back down and let it fully release against the tensioner pully?

 

[19Eclipse90]

You will want to reinsert a 1/16 inch allen wrench or similar pin {1.4 mm (.055 in.) in diameter} to the hydraulic tensioner. If the timing was done correctly the last time around, it should slide all the way in pretty easily or with very little resistance -- you may need to compress the tensioner slightly to get the holes to align. This will keep you from having to compress the tensioner outside of the vehicle. Once the belt is removed, you won't be able to simply slip the new belt on. The exhaust cam will jump so you will need to realign the cam marks unless you have some way of holding it in place. Any way you look at it, you must get the pin installed on the tensioner.

The balance shaft belt will not need to be touched.

Smartest way, IMO, of a quick and dirty belt swap - with the engine at TDC and all timing marks lined up, mark the belt while still on the car in four spots: intake cam sprocket, exhaust cam sprocket, crank sprocket, and oil pump sprocket. With marks on both the belt and those individual engine components, remove the belt, transfer those marks to the new belt, and reinstall matching the marks you made. Go through the correct tensioning procedures with the tensioner pulley, ensure the pin slides in and out of the hydraulic tensioner, torque the tensioner pulley bolt and reassemble everything else.

 

[LiquidX]

Just do it properly if you want to be sure you won't biff up your internals. I don't know why people take shortcuts like these but to each their own...

 

[imdrax]

I am swapping t-belts right now and noticed when removing the tensioner pulley that the side with the 2 holes was on the engine side, and the lip was on the outside.

HOWEVER, if i try to flip the pulley around and install with the 2 holes on the outside it does not fit, the eccentric part of the pulley to too far recessed and the outer part of the pulley hits the block before the inner part sits flush?? Im stumped. here are some pics, the first is how i pulled it out, and the second pic with the 2 holes was the "backside" as installed.

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[romeen]

Install the pulley with the lip towards the block and the two holes on the outside. It may be scraping the block in the completely "untensioned" position but when you rotate it around to the "tensioned" position it should clear it. Before installing the belt you can check it by pushing up on the pivot/tension arm (obviously with the pulley bolted on) and the pulley should rotate freely in that position.

 

[imdrax]

I went and picked up another tensioner and compared the 2. The one in the pctures above would not install with the lip on the inside, because the space between the bearing and edge of sleeve was too much. When compared to the new one this problem was obvious. It is clearly a manufacturer defect and the previous owner must have just figured that since it only fit the one way that that was the way to install it. This is definately a great example of generic parts store quality control, made in Korea!!!!!

 

[Killa_dsm]

I went and picked up another tensioner and compared the 2. The one in the pctures above would not install with the lip on the inside, because the space between the bearing and edge of sleeve was too much. When compared to the new one this problem was obvious. It is clearly a manufacturer defect and the previous owner must have just figured that since it only fit the one way that that was the way to install it. This is definately a great example of generic parts store quality control, made in Korea!!!!!

Well I think the 6 bolt and 7 bolt tensioner pulleys are a bit different. So the previous owner could have gotten the wrong one.

 

[jabrow87]

yeah they are different i noticed that when i did my 6bolt swap..