Rattling Can Sound after timing belt change
08-22-2002, 10:07 PM
#1
Three Wheelin'
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Rattling Can Sound after timing belt change
This is wierd. 87 944NA, I just replaced all the belts and now when I start it I have what sound like a rattling tin can sound coming from somewhere. It goes up and down with revs, but once it warms up a bit 1-2 minutes it usually goes away(tonight on the way home it didn't). I quadruple checked the timing belt and its dead on, so I haven't eaten any valves. Compression is excellent still. Any ideas on what's causing this. The power steering belt is a bit loose(squeals on startup), but I don't think that's related. It sounds like a coffee can with bolts in it...just rattling around.
08-22-2002, 10:36 PM
#3
Burning Brakes
Probably not the timing belt, you have the self tensioner (providing you set it right in the first place) but could be the balance shaft belt or something else. Remove the timing cover and crank it and try to locate the noise.
08-22-2002, 10:36 PM
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Three Wheelin'
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That's an affirmative...i'm going to pull the top cover off later tonight, but the belt was tensioned with the auto tensioner and checked with the tensioner tool.
08-23-2002, 02:18 AM
#5
Three Wheelin'
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Wow! 
That's all I can say really. I pulled the top cover off and as I pulled the top right part of it I could see that the top balancer shaft pulley bolt had completely backed out and the little shield that keeps the belt on was flopping around all over the place. 
The good news is that the bolt stayed there and was kept from backing out by the cover(although the cover suffered some minor plastic melting). I swear I torqued that thing down, but it now has a thorough coating of threadlock to prevent another accident. I'm sooooo lucky that the belt didn't come off or break...sooo, sooo, sooo happy.
The only downside to this now is that when I last opened the cover there was a slight mist of oil on it...now theres a nice leak of oil going down the back side behind the belts. Enough for me to have to fix now. However, I'll fix an oil leak over breaking valves any day. <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />
That's all I can say really. I pulled the top cover off and as I pulled the top right part of it I could see that the top balancer shaft pulley bolt had completely backed out and the little shield that keeps the belt on was flopping around all over the place. The good news is that the bolt stayed there and was kept from backing out by the cover(although the cover suffered some minor plastic melting). I swear I torqued that thing down, but it now has a thorough coating of threadlock to prevent another accident. I'm sooooo lucky that the belt didn't come off or break...sooo, sooo, sooo happy. The only downside to this now is that when I last opened the cover there was a slight mist of oil on it...now theres a nice leak of oil going down the back side behind the belts. Enough for me to have to fix now. However, I'll fix an oil leak over breaking valves any day. <img src="graemlins/beerchug.gif" border="0" alt="[cheers]" />
08-23-2002, 09:53 AM
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Had the same thing on my '83. The bolt that holds the rotor shaft to the cam had loosened and the shaft and rotor assembly were loose. Unfortunately I didn't find it untill the rotor and distributor cap were ruined.
