Karl_W944

Never mind, I found a picture of it.

EDIT: Actually I was wrong, I don't see the damned thing anywhere.

Scott at Team Harco

Try this instead:

1) The pivot bolt is #11 in the attached image. Loosen this first. Do not remove it and be careful as there is probably a nut (#13) at the other end. This is probably the only thing holding tension in the belt if your turnbuckle assembly is broken.
2) Remove the two bolts holding the turnbuckle in place (#28, #32). Make sure you have #30 as this spacer is important for proper alignment. Be sure it goes back where it belongs. You don’t need to mess with figuring out which direction tightens or loosens the assembly at this time.
3) Swing the alternator down to give the belt slack. Remove the old belt and put the new one on.
4) Take the new turnbuckle and mess with it so you can determine which direction you turn the sleeve/strut (#25) to shorten or lengthen it. The jam nuts (#24, #26) need to be backed out of the way if you need to shorten it. I always apply a liberal amount of anti-seize on the threads of the eye bolts and run them fully out and in before final assembly.
5) Put the new turnbuckle assembly in place using the two bolts you removed in step 2. Do not fully tighten these bolts yet and don't forget the spacer (#30).
6) Turn the sleeve/strut portion of the turnbuckle to put tension in the belt. When tension is good in the belt, hold the strut with a 17mm open end wrench while tightening the jam nuts against the strut (also 17mm). Do not over-tighten, as this will damage the treads.
7) Tighten the pivot bolt (#11). You may need to hold the nut at the other end if it spins when tightening the bolt.
8) Now it is OK to tighten the two bolts that go through the eye bolts at the ends of the turnbuckle (#23, #27).

There are reasons these eye bolts get broken so frequently: a) the proper sequence is not followed for loosening and tightening their retaining bolts b) the jam nuts get over-tightened and c) there are left handed threads on one end. Paying attention to these important details will extend the life of these parts and make the belt replacement job a lot less of a problem.

The above procedure also works well for the P/S pump adjuster and belt.

Also if you have A/C - the same procedure applies, but instead of pivoting and tensioning the alternator - you will be doing this to the A/C compressor.

Karl_W944

I loosened #11 and still couldn't get the alternator to budge. I can't find the bolts that pivot the AC compressor either. So I got frustrated and cut the belt off, only to realize that apparently you can't put on the Alternator belt without removing the PS belt.....

THIS, is worse than doing struts! I'd rather do struts 10 times over than do this.

Karl_W944

Finally got the belt on after many hours of frustration and large order of Chinese takeout last night.

As it turned out, I was removing and loosening the right bits and pieces, but I was n't moving them properly. I tried pivoting the alternator instead of the condenser. After realizing my stupid mistake, the job went relatively smoothly. New belt and tensioner in place, and no more squeal with the AC on!! I can finally use it without the most embarrassing sound the car has ever made!

Thank you Scott!

Karl_W944

I slightly fixed my window switches this morning! Cleaning up the switch contacts, while the passenger side switches still don't work, I can finally roll down both windows from the driver's side. That is a win in my book!

thomasmryan

Run in the belts and retighten. Most manuals state 10-15 minutes but I do it again after a tank full.

Karl_W944

So I make an appointment to have my belts re tensioned on Friday today, and drive the 944 around town, only to break down at an intersection. It's not my new DME relay I just got today.

I'm currently waiting to for a tow truck with a nice police officer that was kind enough to wait with me.

Karl_W944

So, finally home after an hour of sitting and holding up traffic. I have no idea what went wrong this time. But here's what happened earlier in a nutshell:

I went to break for a red light and as I did, the car lost all power, stalled or died on the spot. Felt the car rumble a bit, then die. I tried swapping in my spare DME relay and that did nothing. It's soldered so the fuel pump runs indefinitely, so plugging that one in, I could hear the fuel pump whirring so I don't think it's that.

I'm terrified to ask, but what exactly are the symptoms of a timing belt that's gone wrong/slipping, loose?

SloMo228

I've never experienced it, but when you lose the timing belt, the pistons meet the valves at high speed. I'd imagine there would be a noticeable BANG from that happening.

You can check by pulling the spark plugs and turning the crank by hand. Look in the inspection port on the cam pulley cover to see if the cam is turning with the crank. That wouldn't tell you if the belt jumped a tooth, necessarily, but you'll at least be able to check if the belt is still intact. I'd imagine that if you did have a timing belt failure, you'd hear some unpleasant noises while turning the engine over, or you may not be able to turn it over all the way.

Karl_W944

Timing belt is fine!! I checked the inspection whole on the cam cover and the belt didn't look like it skipped any teeth either.



What's more, I got myself some new sensors today and was for some reason, compelled to start the car even though I knew it wouldn't start....And it did. It ran for about 5 minutes then died in a fashion similar to what happened on Monday.

Along with this, I've got myself some new trans fluid finally to change that out.

This will be a fun birthday project for me tomorrow.

Karl_W944

Got the car back today from a local shop after having them replace the speed and reference sensors. Everything's back to normal again, and I only have these things to do for now:

1. Trans fluid change.
2. Adjusting the passenger door handle.
3. Fixing the now intermittent passenger side window switches(one on the driver’s side, the other on the passenger side).
4. Repair and repaint rocker panels
5. Replace driver’s side rear marker light bulb.

Tiger03447

It's looking better and better, Karl! Hat's off to you! Hope that you get the gremlins excorsized soon!

Karl_W944

Last night while getting some gas, I decided to seafoam the car like I had remembered doing last winter. I took my can, put 1/4 in the tank, and gassed up afterwards. When I met up with some friends about 30 minutes later, I decided to do the whole process and go through the brake booster as I had done previously; except I'm pretty sure I did something wrong.

Well to start, I messed up when I accidentally didn't go through the big brake booster line, but one of the small lines that runs off the back of the big line...I poured at least 1/4 of the can through that. Then I put the last 1/2 in the tank. I'm not entirely sure where that line went to, but it had results similar to when I went through the main line. I let it sit 25 minutes and started it up. It started easier than the last time and the idle surge started about 3 minutes afterwards and has continued since last night.

Another thing I've been thinking about is the throttle, because at the same time I was doing this, I was demonstrating to a friend how the idle adjustment screw works, but never had a surging idle issue when adjusting it. I have mine set to idle between 1000-1100rpm.

One more thing. My cold start this morning was rather odd as well. Normally, it'll fire up and idle at about 7-800rpm and slowly rise as the engine warms up. This morning, it idled at about 8-900 then started to rise and idle at about 1200rpm before it started surging like it had done last night.

To my mind, it's either a vacuum leak, or my putting the seafoam in the wrong line. I'm hoping that if I run the tank low enough, it'll maybe go away??

Karl_W944

Turns out when I was messing with the idle adjustment screw last night, I backed it out pretty far, so when I tightened it a couple minutes ago, the idle stopped surging and all is well now.

Karl_W944

This started happening last night while cruising up and down Woodward. The misfiring was most noticeable with more throttle. Under light acceleration, it's only felt in 1st gear, under harder acceleration, in every gear but 2nd for some reason? Not sure exactly which things I'll need to replace, but I know it must be ignition or fuel related for sure. The question is where do I start?

I did just change out the plugs in January(I used cheap NGKs, yes I should have gone Bosch), but it's only been about 4,000 miles since then. In any case, I'll pull the plugs later and see how they look. I'll also order a set of wires as well. Unfortunately with classes starting tomorrow, the budget doesn't allow for a new distributor and rotor set.

Also, I'm running 89 octane if that's important.