schwank

Spent a few hours in the garage today working on various items on the back end. Also had a local 944 owner Andy come over to the house where he and his father successfully removed the windshield from my parts car for use in his 84.

First I changed the trans fluid with Redline MT90. I used the tube over the tire method... WAY slow. Next time I'm doing a squeeze bottle or siphon pump. Regardless, it was pretty easy, just slow.

Second I finished shorting the brake pad sensors I removed when I recently rebuilt the braking system. Just used a short bit of wire and duct taped the crap out of it.

Finally I added an 18mm rear sway bar using serge's droplinks and some delrin bushings from paragon. My car came with no rear sway from the factory... I noticed it really didn't feel planted before, it kind of hunted, especially under acceleration. Took a bit of modification to the sway bar as the ends were too wide to fit through the bushing housing... had to grind down one end and I was in business. But everything fit really nicely, overall a great bang for the buck, and a one beer job.

Just took her out for a drive on some local twisties... it's like a whole different car. The back end doesn't shimmy like it used to and the whole thing just feels much more planted. The tranny also quieted down a bit... still a bit of notchiness when cold going into 2nd, but the car does have 155K on it. Also no more brake pad warning light on the dash.

Overall, an excellent use of a rainy saturday afternoon... can't wait to get back out on track this Friday. Here's a couple pics...

Wipeout

Eric, I have a pump for tranny fluid. Let me know next time you're doin' it. I'll even bring some beer.

Quick, update the site!

schwank

OK, just went out to check out why my balance shaft belt screams so much, and to install the odyssey battery.

I don't think the balance belt is THAT tight, I can twist it just a touch over 90 degrees. Below I've posted a pic... you can see that the belt looks to be contacting the WP pulley... Also look a touch to the right and see that one tooth seems to be sheared a bit... does anything look inherently wrong here? I know the balance belt should be loose but I really can't see it being that much moreso than I have it now. It actually isn't bad when cold but when it warms up it really screams once I get to 3000+ rpm. Seems to run great with no extra vibration. It is a rebuilt water pump... could I be hearing bearings? And is that WP pulley too wide, it's SOOO close to the balance belt it sketches me out.



Finally here's a couple pics of the Odyssey battery and my ghetto fabulous $5 retaining bracket. The rubber dip cost more than the metal, lol.

EMBPilot

I have a tooth on my BB that looks JUST like that. i have no idea where i came from. id like to hear what others have to say about it.

apierce918

if you can barely twist the balance belt past 90*, its too tight.

start loosening until you say, "man, that seems too loose" then its about right, and it shouldn't touch the idler pulley either, 1mm above it

Techno Duck

Eric.. ive got the same battery in my car and came up with the same exact bracket design using some wood mending straps.

Are you sure the balance shaft idler pulley is not touching the belt? My belt still whines a bit probably because its a little to tight. But seeing the balance shaft belt wobbling around at idle when its supposedly tensioned correctly is unnerving. I can turn mine a bit past 90 degrees with some force.

Mike C.

I'm thinking maybe someone turned the B/S belt tensioner the wrong way to tighten the belt. The tensioner should be turned clockwise (when facing the front of the engine) to tighten the belt. Worth a look.

M758

Yeah loosen the balance belt. It should be looser than the t-belt. Mine would whine some times when it was too tight as well. As for rubbing between the waterpump pulley and balance belt... yes it happens. If you want you can adjust the balance belt away a little.

Oh... if you get whinning at idle you can put a long screwdriver on the pulleys (carefully when they are rotating) and put it to your ear. This way you can determine which one is noisy. Short term you can add a little oil to quite things down. Long term you should replace it since the bearings will wear down.

The DareDevil

Turn clockwise to tension the balance belt. I think if you tension it by turning the tension pully counter-clockwise it will contact the water pump pulley.

schwank

OK, well I've now redone the balance belt tension half a dozen times and it still screams like a tea kettle. Also verified my PS belt and alt belt are not too tight. I've even had the belt way loose and still... it's only under load, over say 1800K rpm, not at idle or when out of gear rolling.

I replaced most of the rollers with the h2o pump, but not the actual balance shaft pulleys themselves. The tensioner and idler pulleys are new too. I'm gonna try some pulley oiling next and see what happens.... what oil is best?

What else could it be... sure sounds like it's coming from the center of the motor near those pulleys. Could it be the power steering pump? I get no whine on turning... Anyway, it is getting kind of annoying, actually more like paranoying me. At least I know that some contact water pump pulley is ok.

M758

Eric,
Did you do the test with the long screwdriver? If you thing it is P/S pump or alternator pull the belts and try it. The car will run off the batter just fine for few minutes with not alternator. If the noise is still there it is either balance or t-belt related. You can even run it with out the balance belt attached as a final check. In this way you can in 30 mintues narrow down the sound.

BTW... constant contact with the waterpump is not good... Occasional contact is ok.

sharky47

Looking at those droplinks you can just barely see the bushings I made.......

Those things are great - I could really tell the difference when I installed mine along with the 951 sways. One of the best, relatively inexpensive upgrades for the NA.