Ralf Oehlerich

I am a little embarrased, but I stopped today trying to remove the automatic timing belt tensioner since the spring has so much pressure on it. The Haynes manual, as we all know, is useless for the 85.5 and up t belt installs.

If someone could give me a play by play, that would be great. Balance belt is off, just looking to remove the timing belt and install the new one with the autom. tensioning system. How do I take it off and get it back on ???

Thanks

Ralf 610 222 0101

Perry 951

You will want to loosen the nut towards the center of the tensioner. Behind this nut there is a T shaped spacer. Once you loosen that a little, you can use something, a jack handle for instance, to push the tensioner arm down to relieve the tension on the belt. Once you have that pushed down, lock it in place by tightening the nut.

Next, loosen the 3 mounting nuts until they are flush with the stud. (hard to see, but they are in there) This will allow the tensioner to be pulled away from the block and you can slip the belt behind it. Plus, buy not removing the nuts or the tensioner, you will not have to fiddle with getting them back on. Tighten the 3 13mm nuts to 15ft/lbs.

Install is reverse of the removal. Loosen the nut on the tensioner to apply pressure to the belt. Tighen nut and rotate the motor by hand 5 revolutions. Check timing marks. Loosen nut again to re-tension, then tighten to spec (33ft/lbs.) Rotate motor again and check timing marks.

Retension in 3000 miles.

C5Driver951

Well, there's a proper Porsche tool for the job and then there's the way when you just need to get it done...

Loosen the 2 13mm nuts on the tensioner. Take two 5mm allen wrenches and stick them in the holes in the tensioner. Now get a big screwdriver to remove tension from the belt, and retighten the two 13mm nuts. The tensioner is held on by three 13mm nuts in a triangle configuration. Find those and remove tensioner. You can get the timing belt over/through all of the other pullies, but it is a whole lot easier to have a flywheel lock to remove the crank pullies.

Installation is the reverse of removal. Make sure you have some means of checking the tension on the timing belt. Not having it correct can be a very expen$ive lesson.

Good Luck. <img src="graemlins/drink.gif" border="0" alt="[cherrsagai]" />

Ralf Oehlerich

You guys are both right on !!! But how do you get way in there to get to those 3 bolts. I needed a mirror and light just to see them ?

Tomorrow will be a fun day.

Also, when I started taking the belts off, I set everything to TDC not minus 1.5 teeth as I am now reading. Any advice here ?

Thanks again

951sickness

Welcome to Porsche repair by brail. I never did see those three nuts prior to removing them. The tool used to hold the balance shaft in place when removing the gear is the tool to use on the auto tensioner. If you are doing a waterpump you will need the tool anyway. The minus 1.5 degrees is for belt tensioning, for the change itself you want it all to be at TDC. Good luck.

AMCPILOT

Hope this helps ... pictures are worth a thousand words sometimes, especially with 944 tensioners

Ralf Oehlerich

Great info from all of you. Just fired up the car, and YES all is well. Except I do hear a whining noise like a turbine not like a sqeaking belt. I did also replace both aux. belts. I read that tight belts make noise. I did NOT use any belt measuring devices, just the good old "midas touch"
Thanks

Tom R.

turbine noise in considered normal. remember to re-tenison the belts in 1500 miles...or else!

I've read about a lot of people using your tensioning tool with great success.

Ralf Oehlerich

Took her out for a 100 mile ride today. Pulled back into the garage and smelled a burning rubber smell. The whinning did not go away once the engine was warmed. Any thoughts ?
I am about to open her up again. I know that I did not install the roller for the balance shaft (0.5mm) close enough. But what about the smell ???

951sickness

I would check to see if anything fell down and is now burning on the exhaust manifold. I would imagine if it were the belts making contact they would have cut through the covers by now, made a horrible noise above the whining, and likely would have snapped the belt. By the way the whine did not go away on my car either so i think you're okay there.