jwillman

Got the lower covers off today and it is a bit of an oily mess.

The timing belt looks almost new from the look of the teeth and belt label but the tensioner boot is shot.

I did a search and found several posts about rebuilding the tensioner and all the ones I read spoke to filling with oil. I don't see any fittings on mine. Are there different types? Is there a rebuild kit?

Given the 4.5 is a non interference engine I am tempted to use the belt thats on the car for a bit although I know I will hear they are not that costly so why not change it. Every write up I have seen includes the water pump and thus the requirement to use a flywheel lock. Is that required if I amn just changing out the belt only?

karl ruiter

If your water pump is not leaking I would not touch it. Many of the current offernings have been seeing infant motality- sometimes catastrophically. A known good one is a good bet. There is a OBhave's new design, but that may be more than you want to spend in this non critical application. Likewise, I would tend to not replace the belt as some of them stretch a lot when new and you can acutally cause a problem be replacing it. The stock tensioner does not acutally 'tension' at all, so you have to watch the tension like a hawk you there in any change of your belt stertching.
If I were to do one thing here I would put on a porkensioner. A little expensive for an application like this, but a big step forward in my opinion. Not sure what you can do the the stock tensioner. Obviously the boot is toast, but I think I heard they were not available.
To me your best options are:
-Check the tension, but otherwise do nothing.
-Put in a porkenioner and a new Porsche/Gates belt.
-Put in a new Gates/Porsche belt and watch the tension carefully for the first 1000 miles.

tailpipe

In my cars they seem to keep working just fine its the idler bearing that usually goes bad if your going to replace the belt do yourself a favour and change the seals while you are in there maybe another 20 mins work and $150 in cost that will keep all the oil at bay replace the tensioner boot and go like that I don't bother to put the covers back on the top that way i can keep an eye on the belt tension without having to dig to deap

jwillman

Which seals are you talking about? The ones for the oil pump?

Thanks

ROG100

The tensioner is filled with oil prior to installing the new boot and clamp. No bleed and fill srews.
The later boot fits with an adapter sleeve and the later clamp (yes we sell them) because the original is NLA.
No gasket required for the tensioner as there are no oil passages.

Be aware that to fit a PKensioner to the early cars may require a AC mounting bracket change.
For this reason I do not recommend the PKensioner on the early cars on a cost and PITA basis regarding the AC bracket.

You will need new rollers and pivot pin bushings along with a new pivot bolt.
The early pivot bolt is NLA but we have them as we made a batch. The early pivot bolt is prone to bend and ours is stronger.

There is no Gates belt for the early cars per say. The OEM is Flennor which is a German company. I believe Gates recently purchased Walther Flender owner of Flennor so maybe there is a Gates belt after all.
I only sell the Flennor belt after all the information about the stretching Continental belts.

michael j wright

Also while you are in there and have it apart, replace the front crank seal and the front cam seals, including the O'rings were the front of the cam housing bolts on. Yes, you will need a flywheel lock to do this job in order to get to the front crank seal. And if you plan on reusing the belt, make shure that it goes back on the same direction that it came off. To clean the oil off,I haved used Simple Green and also carb cleaner and elbo grease- worked great.

jwillman

I pulled apart a tensioner on the spare engine I have and the plates are aLL gummed up. Looking in the WSM there seems to be a couple of configurations for the plates. Which one should I use? Do I just count the plates, 40 versus 35, and stack according to below. Hate to assume the PO did not botch it up assuming it was ever apart. Why the difference?

Thanks

ROG100

Jim,
On the early cars there were only 35 - so thats what you should have.
Roger

WallyP

Just in case the arrangement isn't clear...

|)))))((((()))))((((()))))((((()))))|

The bimetallic Belville washers act as a stiff spring to maintain tension on the belt, and each washer flattens slightly with increased engine block temp. This maintains proper tension even though the block grows more than the belt as things get hot.

jwillman

Thanks Roger and Wally. Clear now.

Vilhuer

And to get washers to proper temperatue oil has to be in the tensioner. Besides it needs to be there to lubricate parts or tensioner internals start to eat their way through teflon coating and eventually casting itself.

jwillman

Okay, Now I am confused. The tensioner I pulled off my spare engine, a -16, only had 34 plates.

The tensioner I pulled off my car, -03 engine, had 40 plates arranged in the order perscribed by the WSM.

Both tensioners have the same PN on the housing, 928.105.541.2R which I can't seem to validate in the parts manual.

The WSM calls for a different adjusting screw based on 7 or 8 sets of plates and I can't find a number on those

So should I have 35 or 40 plates? How do I confirm I have the right adjuster screw?

Thanks

ROG100

Interesting - I have counted 35 washers on my early cars and also on the later cars.
If you check PET it calls for 35off 1978 through 1995.

The adjusting screw SS from the 928 105 075 00 & 01 to 928 105 075 02.
075 02 seems to be used 78 through 82.
In 83 the adjusting screw changes to 075 03.

If your car had 40 plates then arrange them as per the manual and carry on.

Maybe someone who knows more than I can enlighten us about 35 v 40.