DLadner

I'm doing my first timing belt job on my US '85 manual - including swapping the factory tensioner for a PKensioner. I'm using John Kelley's excellent manual, and (replacement driver's side cam gear aside) it's been pretty straightforward so far.

However, now I'm trying to install the new timing belt into place, and despite my best efforts I can't seem to get quite enough slack on it to thread it around the passenger side cam gear. As directed, I threaded the belt starting at the crank gear, to the oil pump gear, to the driver's cam, and off the water pump - and I'm sure that I've minimized as much slack as I can between each. The PKensioner pulley just doesn't seem to give me quite enough slack to pull the belt on the passenger cam gear - and I really don't want to damage the belt or gear.

Any advice?

MBMB

I had to remove the Porkensioner piston to route my belt, put the belt about halfway on the Porkensioner pulley, and gently work it on to the passenger-side camshaft sprocket.

(When I had the stock tensioner, I had to install the tensioner after installing the belt.)

Landseer

Does the PorkTensioner instruction indicate when to remove the pin?

Bill Ball

What I generally have to do is put a wrench on the driver side hex washer in front of the gear and pull it towards the passenger side to get that side as taut as possible, then work it on the other gear, intially with just the rear edge of the belt on the teeth, starting at the bottom and trying to get that side as taut as possible while working the rest of the rear belt edge onto the gear. It's a chore working alone. Sometimes it goes right on, but after it goes on, I find one side or the other is off a tooth about half the time. Hopefully the more clever people here have an easier technique. I've only done two or three Pokensioners, and I don't remember if I had to do something more in that case.

fbarnhill

I just removed the 3 small bolts out of the tensioner. Remember to put the pin back in if it is out. put your belt over the roller, then put the tensioner back on. It works every time.

928er

Using a clamp on the belt like that damages the belt. If you've tightened the clamp enough to hold it the belt needs to be replaced. There is also an alen hole in the tensioner that you need to rotate which will give you enough slack to slip the belt on.

Imo000

Unless that C clamp is really cranked, the belt will be intact. There is no real need to clmap it much, the teeth will hold the belt.

DLadner

I doubt that I've damaged the belt with the C-clamp. I put it on there just tight enough to hold it in place - there's no depression circles on the belt. I've been more worried about damaging the belt from all the yanking and tugging I've been doing on it to make it as tight as possible between the gears.

I really like the idea to pull the tensioner pulley - I'll try that and see how it goes. BTW the tensioner pin is still in place, and the pulley is completely slack - sorry I forgot to mention that before.

Thanks everyone for the tips - I'll let you know how it goes.

borland

If the cam sprocket are in the correct position, you don't need to remove the PKn tensioner piston. Problem is your cam sprockets are not properly positioned. They should be currently positioned at 45 degree before TDC with flywheel lock still installed.

After you use Bill's suggestion, make sure after installing the belt, the the cam sprocket align with the marks on the engine.

MBMB

Are you using a woobie (sp?) to protect your driver-side fender?

PorKen

This is what I do. Although, now I use a PKBumpstick.

If the belt cannot be slid onto the 1-4, there is usually slack somewhere between the 5-8 and the crank gear. The 5-8 will rotate CW (advance) if left to it's own devices, and/or the belt needs to be seated into the crank, oil pump, and 5-8 cam gears. (Make sure to torque the cam bolts to 47 ft lbs after the belt is on, as all the fuss may loosen or tighten them.)

If it still needs more slack, remove the upper two tensioner/damper bolts and loosen the third just enough so the T/D can be rotated out of the way. (If you remove the pulley, it's usually difficult to get the bolt threaded back in.)

DLadner

Okay, it's all wrapped up!

I did previously try to "wiggle" the driver's cam first (to eliminate slack between the oil pump and cam) and the passenger's cam second (to try to slip the ****ing belt on) but still just couldn't QUITE get the slack I needed.

The final solution was to remove the tensioner pulley, finish pulling the belt neatly around the passenger cam pulley (with as little slack between the water pump and driver's cam as possible), and then reinstall the tensioner pulley back into place. Once the belt was threaded around all the gears nicely, I didn't have to push too hard against the tensioner and belt to get the tensioner bolt lined up. It all seems so easy now!

Long story short, I then rechecked my 45 degree timing marks, pretensioned the belt, pulled the pin, cranked the engine around a bunch of times, checked the tensioner plunger distance for correct spec, and finally retimed the engine using a PK32Vr to 0 degrees on the driver's side and 2 degrees retarded on the passenger's.

Everything looks great, and I look forward to putting the rest of it back together tomorrow. Thank you everybody for the excellent advice - it's only because of years of lurking on Rennlist that I have slowly built up the knowledge and confidence to do all of this!

And Porken - I'm now the proud owner of three of your inventions: the PKensioner, PK32Vr and your performance chips. You are truly THE MAN!

PorKen

Thanks!


It may be too late, now, but with a new belt, you should set both sides equal with the 32V'r, as the belt will stretch to make about 2° retard on the 1-4 side. (There's a tip somewhere in the manual.) You'll want to recheck, anyway, after 1000 miles or so, so NBD.

DLadner

It's not too late yet, so I'll retime the 1-4 side back to 0 degrees before I put the covers back on. Don't know how I missed that in the manual...

Thank you, thank you, thank you!