Shawn Stanford

I was planning on running out and buying them, both because I wanted them today and to support the local auto parts places. But it turns out something came up and I'm not going to get back out to the garage today.

Shawn Stanford

Okay, after a hiatus where I was super busy with other stuff, I am back to working on this car. Today, I focused on reinstalling the rebuilt tensioner.

It is an ongoing disaster...

It took me I don't know how many tries to get the tensioner on there with the gasket in place. Then I found that one of the bolts that I took out of the tensioner was at least 5mm too short. Since the PO did the TB and tensioner before my buddy bought it, I'm guessing it's yet another of the strange and poor maintenance choices on this car.

Once I got the tensioner in place, I scratched my head if I should put the oil in before or after tensioning. After posting to FB and then finding more references, I went ahead and added the oil before applying tension. I followed a clever suggestion and fitted some clear tubing into the fill hole and the end of the oil can into the other end, and started to fill.

Then all the oil ran out because while I was wrestling to get the tensioner in place, the gasket slipped out of place. ****!

I removed the entire thing and reinstalled it with the gasket in place, and then filled it with oil. This time the oil ran out of the small port, as it should. Okay, then!

Then I spent half an hour wrestling with the GD air pump to get it into position to take the long bolt. What a MFer. We hates it forever.

Then I started moving the tensioner bolt in and it's WAAAAY in there and there's still no tensioning going on. Then I realize that I forgot to put in the spring that goes against the bottom of the tension rod.

F*cking hell.

I am done for tonight. I suck at this so hard...

Shawn Stanford

Okay, so some progress.

I decided to try to put the spring and rod on without removing the tensioner (again!). I ended up backing out the tensioning bolt, removing the idler arm, putting the spring and rod in place and reinstalling the idler arm. This turned out to be relatively easy; I think less than a minute from off to back on. I tensioned the timing belt and locked the tensioning bolt in place. Then I put the harmonic balancer, the big washer, and the nut back on, and removed the flywheel lock and rotated the motor by hand until the cams and the balancer were both back at TDC.

Success!

Now it's just a matter of putting everything back together. Hopefully, I'll have it running by the end of the day.

skpyle

Good Luck, and keep at it, Shawn!

Shawn Stanford

Everything got put back together except for the accessory belts, and I decided to turn the motor over with the coils unplugged. It turned once or twice but the battery was tired. I put it on the charger and went to tighten up the accessory belts while it was charging. The 17mm bolt on the back of the alternator bracket was frozen and I couldn't get enough leverage with it hanging, so I dropped it and managed to break loose the bolt with a breaker bar. I cleaned decades worth of crude off the alternator while I had it out. Unfortunately, I ran out of time before I finished getting it back up, so it will have to wait until Saturday.

Shawn Stanford

Okay, it's back together. Here's the final report on this project (I hope).

The large bolt securing the alternator was a little wonky, so I ended up having to chase the first few millimeters of threads. After that, it went in just fine. I tightened everything up and fired the car; it caught and settled into a fast idle. I looked around under the hood while it was running and noticed that the throttle rod seemed like it wasn't springing back. I gave it a push and the idle settled. Since I'd removed the throttle bracket during the build, I figured that it was a couple millimeters further out from where it was previously. I turned the car off and loosened the nut to adjust the ball socket and the entire rod came out in my hand! It had slipped off the ball on the other end, which is, of course, buried under the intake.

Ugh...

I peered down the opening and I could see it well enough. I greased the end with a shot of WD40 and managed to get the socket back on the ball. Then I adjusted the other end and seated it on the throttle cable. I started the car again and it settled into a normal idle.

I looked at the belts and notice that the air pump belt was fraying. I turned off the car and saw that at some point the belt had slipped out of its pulley on the crank and was running in the gap. I loosened the air pump and got the belt seated correctly, and on the next start everything was good. I spent a few more minutes double checking the accessory bolts and tightening up the belts a little, and that's it. The car seems to be running well; no smoke or flames or anything!

Tomorrow it goes back to my buddy, who's going to drive it to Watkin's Glenn next weekend.

Shawn Stanford

F*ing hell. I think I just killed my buddy's car.

I feel sick...

skpyle

Sh*t...what happened, Shawn?

76FJ55

That totally suck! Hopefully its recoverable. Give us the details and we'll see what we can do to help.

Shawn Stanford

I know I might sound like I'm being dramatic, but I really feel like sh*t about what happened. I also feel like I shouldn't even hang out with you folks. Like I said: Dramatic. But in my defense, this is absolutely the worst thing I've ever done to a car while working on it.

I'll go into more detail as I come to terms with it, but in short: About a mile from the house the belt light came on, and a few seconds later the car cut out. I told my buddy and had the car towed back to the garage. I didn't look at it yesterday, I just couldn't face it.

I went out today and started taking off the covers and it looks like the belt migrated forward (toward the front of the car) and "shaved" itself. The belt is still a complete circle, but there's less than half an inch of it left. The remainder is a collection of fibers in the belt path. Once the belt got too narrow, it slipped off the tensioner and that was it.

Why would the belt do that? What did I do wrong?

Mrmerlin

put the lower belt guide on the crank drive gear on the wrong way this will shred a belt fast

Shawn Stanford

Godamitsomuch.

And based on my understanding, there's zero chance the motor didn't lunch itself. Correct?

Adk46

We all admire your adventurous spirit, Shawn. Still do. Lesser men would not try things like this. It's going to become a great story with a happy ending.

Shawn Stanford

To his everlasting credit, my buddy has been very good about this. We're talking through assessing the current motor for a rebuild, swapping in the nearly complete motor from another car he has, or buying a lightly built motor that someone he knows has laying around waiting to be reassembled. I did my usual heresy and suggested considering an LS swap.

We spent most of the day on Sunday doing what should have been a two-hour job: Changing out the front wheel bearing in my 986. It would have been a two-hour job, except that the downlink was a complete MFer. I've had the suspension completely apart on Boxsters on more than one occasion, and it's always been super easy. Four or five bolts and Bob's your uncle. But for some reason, the bolt going through the strut would not come out! We ended up pulling the entire strut and knuckle and hammering it out with a hand sledge. We completely destroyed the link. After that, the new bearing came out and went in pretty easily. We expected to find the shaft for the downlink bolt completely corroded, but it was fine, as was the hole through the knuckle. We have no idea why it was so bound up.

Anyway, that's germaine because since I blew up his 928, I'm lending him my Boxster so his brother has a car to take on the PCA drive to Watkin's Glenn next weekend.

skpyle

Hang in there, Shawn. Everything is fixable. It may take some doing, but it is fixable.

Also, can that sh*t about not hanging out with us. You are better than that. Besides, you are not the first, nor will you be the last to kill something while working on it.
Next time you see me, ask me about using cam-lifter break-in lube for extra ZZDP in the seasoned crate engine in my little S-10...