sharky47

Heres the situation- I just began to change my timing belt on my '87 944S because it had no service records and I wasn't sure how long it had been. I removed the cover and to my horror the balance shaft belt had broken and was about to become entangled in the timing belt, Yikes!

Raceit

Did the balance shafts turn on you?

sharky47

Oops, I accidentally pressed the wrong button and it posted my topic without letting me finish, anyway, back to my story.

The timing belt actually looks pretty new, I may not change it immediately, but let me know what yall think. What I need to know is how do the balance shafts have timing marks on them, if not, how do you put them back the way they go? All the rollers spin freely and everything else looks pretty good in there otherwise.

Also, I want to change my timing chain and the plastic saddle that it rides on for the same reason of not knowing when it was last done. Where do you get just the plastic piece? The Porsche dealership is more than happy to sell me the whole ***., but I don't think I really need the whole thing. Anyway, let me know what yall think and as always thanks for any input, I don't know what I would do without this site.

joseph mitro

sharky47,
do what i did - take it to the mechanic. just kidding. i am not mechanical enough to change the belt, but i did have all the tensioners changed at the same time.

on that note, does anybody know if the timing belt needs to be readjusted on the 87 and later cars? my understanding is these cars have a spring loaded tensioner for the timing belt. wouldn't that eliminate the need for a readjustment? my mechanic is planning on charging $100+ simply to readjust the timing belt at 2000 miles.

sharky47

Actually, I'm pretty mechanically inclined, I'm an aircraft mechanic, so I'm not afraid of doing the work as long as I have complete instructions. The install doesn't really look hard, I just need to know where to position them.

joseph mitro

whoa! my avatar was huge. anybody else have this huge image?
i'll try it again

OZ951

Dan,

there are marks for lining up the balance shaft rollers with the timing cover. You can stop by and check out the procedure from my manuals if you like, or there may be an online guide at Paragon that explains it.

Cheers

sharky47

Great thanks, are you going to do that front end work on your car this weekend, if so, I may stop by and give you a hand and take a look at those manuals. Anyway let me know

Jfrahm

The later cars do not have a belt tensioner that continuously adjusts the cam belt tension like the 32v 928 does. What they have is a built in spring that can set the tension for you when you perform the retensioning procedure. You still have to retension the belt 1500 miles after you change it, and then a few more times before you replace the belt. You are also supposed to check the tension with the 9201, and use the 9201 to set the balance shaft belt. Personally I use the spring to set my timing belt tension and do the balance shaft belt by feel, but then I've done a lot of belts.

It's scary how loose the timing belt gets after 1500 miles. I actually retension it after 500 miles and then again at 1500, as it's really easy and I get worried about it.

-Joel.

Tom

Most timing belts and balance shaft belts get changed at the same time. Timing belts even for 944S's are rather cheap, especially when compared to the cost of removing the head to replace 4 (or 8, or 12, or 16) valves. I would strongly suggest changing the timinb belt while you're there. After all you don't KNOW how old it actually is do you? If the car has over 100000 mi you probably should consider changing the tensioner instead of just the pad. The chain may not be as much of a problem but while it is a $12.00 item, changing it does involve the removing the cams.

Matt Ritenour

Sharky,

I would suggest that you replace the entire tensioner on the cam chains if you're even remotely close to 100,000K. My tensioner broke on the drive home back to Indiana and it is only through the grase of the PO that I was able to afford a rebuild. Replacing a 250$ cam tensioner is worth the extra money concidering that if the new pad breaks it's going to cost you 5-6K to rebuild the engine. My mechanic says that he won't service any 44S's without replacing the cams so you might want to get all of it replaced. Best of luck.

Matt

MHT

I would suggest replacing the cam belt also. I just finished a valve job on a 87 944s that bent all the exhaust valves, the cam belt looked fine from the back side, but the teeth sheared off around the crank pulley. You still could not see the teeth delaminating untill you twisted the belt 90 degrees, which you can't do while it is installed. If you don't want to spring for all the rollers, at least replace the tensioners. The balance shafts will tend to line up close to being in time if you simply let gravity move them, the timing at this piont will not be perfect, but you should be able to see the timing notches close to the pointers on the back cover. Good luck Mark T.

OZ951

</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">Originally posted by sharky47:
<strong>Great thanks, are you going to do that front end work on your car this weekend, if so, I may stop by and give you a hand and take a look at those manuals. Anyway let me know</strong></font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana,Tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,Geneva">I pulled out the front suspension and steering yesterday but it will be out for several days while I get some new power steering lines made up, so your welcome to check it out while its all out to see. And of course your welcome to look trough the workshop manuals at the same time, I have some pics that might be useful too. Saturday afternoon will work if you want.

sharky47

Sounds good, give me a good time, and I'll be by.

johne

and don't forget the sweet write up under "Garage Shop manual" at
<a href="http://www.clarks-garage.com/" target="_blank">http://www.clarks-garage.com/</a>