john981

I know and I already admitted I should have listened to you. I was relying too much on the tie wrap and also somehow thought the foam behind the bolt will prevent it to fall down. Painful but good lesson. I already tight the tie wrap super snug around the bolt for the re-installation and will also make sure that I have the magnet and rag under/next to it.

KBell

John

Great job!
Love your willingness to tackle these projects!
Thank you for sharing and helping the next Rennlister out.
Thanks you

john981

Thank you Kevin, appreciate your kind words. The main reason I can go for these projects is because of great people of you, who are always there to help out people like me with their tips and advises.

With that being said, I just completed the job. Putting the new belt on was significantly easier than taking it out. Couple of tips and observations for the assembly:

1. Putting the belt in it's position: It was pretty straight forward. It was very helpful to have a ruler to push the belt over the lower pulleys. Make sure that you have the diagram handy, I had on my phone and had to look at it 3 or 4 times. It was very helpful to have my dad there, especially for the last pulley. It was already mentioned in the other posts: place the belt on the lower pulleys first starting on the low right one and work your way up and the last pulley should be the tensioner pulley without the edge. Before putting the belt over the last pulley, inspect again that everything is in place and centered, than loose the tensioner with the 30mm wrench and have the second person place the belt over the last pulley.
2. Putting the spacer back: Don't forget to secure with a rag and magnet stick. Best it to impact from the passenger side and make sure that you are as centered as possible. I am not sure how big the fit between the spacer and the bolt is, I just hope it is pretty tight and the bolt makes sure that the spacer is as centered as possible otherwise If you hit the spacer few millimeter too far towards the main pulley, this can be pretty dangerous. I took a picture to show how tight the clearance is, it is pretty scary how tight the area is (see picture):


3. Putting back the bolt: Make sure you secure the area underneath with a rag, remember what happened to me pulling the bolt out! It is useful to practice with the tie wrap and see if the spacer is centered. Once you know how to juggle in the bolt, I would pull out the bolt and remove the tie wrap. I think it would be very difficult to have the bolt in place and try to cut the tie wrap. At this point you have to be brave, use your fingers, magnetstick and a needle nose plier to put the bolt back. Once the bolt is in position, you can use the needle nose plier to turn the bolt until it starts to become tight. Than take your 16mm wrench and tighten the bolt. Torque recommendation is 37ftlb but as mentioned earlier it is impossible to place any torque wrench in that tight area. Just go by feel and tighten it as tight as you think 37ftlb should be

4: Once everything is in, remove your rag, inspect again the seat of the belt, inspect that the spacer is not touching the pulley on the other side or is not dangerously close and start the car. I would stay in a safe distance, in the unlikely case something goes wrong.

Next project is to replace the leaking hose but this is outside of my league. I already ordered the unit and have an appointment with my indy who will take care of it. As mentioned in my other thread, the unit is more than the piece of hose it is a big unit which goes all around the engine and requires a professional to open few parts around it to place the hose unit in the correct position. I recommend everyone who replaces the belt, to check this hose, because it had mini cracks on both ends and I assume I am not the only one who has this issue.

Thank you again Rennlist and other fellows for your help. Another fun project. I think and hope next time everything will be much smoother

CaymanCarver

Huge thanks for this excellent post and congrats on replacing your serp belt!

john981

One quick question to the experts: After I started the car, I have noticed that over the tensioner pulley there is a very small play of the belt. Since there is no edge on this pulley, you can potentially place the belt 1 or 2 mm off center. I am wondering if this small play has something to de with the fact that the belt is not 100% centered. I mean you can only go as centered as your eyes tell you. Is it normal that there is a mini play? and if the belt is not fully centered, will it when the engine warms up over time finds the right position? I just think that from the logical/engineering view any play, even a very small one, is not good for the heat development and premature wear. I doubt it has to do anything with a bad pulley, I checked it before I put the belt on and everything looked perfect. thanks in advance.

KBell

I would leave the cover off and drive it around.
Inspect it.
Do this a couple times till you feel comfortable with your work.
Then put the cover back on.

john981

Agree, this is exactly what I am doing. I have to leave the area open anyway, since my Indy is going to replace the hose in few days. I will see how it goes and report back.

CaymanCarver

I think the belt should auto align/center. At least that's been my experience with the Viper.

IMO any play is less than optimal, but maybe is normal in the Porsche world.

john981

I was at my dealership yesterday to pick up few parts and asked the service adviser about this and he called his mechanic. The mechanic said that a small play at the tensioner pulley is normal. I am still hoping it will settle in after few trips.

CaymanCarver

Hey John are you a Boxster or a Cayman?

I was curious too.
Removing the carpet turned into a major PIA. Cut my thumb on a piece of trim and decided to back-off and regroup, rather than bleed my own blood all over the inside of the car.

For the Boxster it looks easy.

For the Cayman.. not so much.
Looks like you have to remove:

• the top engine cover carpet.
• the top corner trim pieces covering the seat belts (I wasn't able to remove these with my trim tools)
• Maybe remove the cross-bar
• And then loosen 4 nuts that pinch the carpet along the top.

Please correct me if I'm wrong and s'plain it to in detail.

john981

I have a boxster. It depends which cover we are talking about. The cover behind the seats takes less than 5 minutes and is super easy. The top cover below the top though is a nightmare! I haven't opened the top cover yet but there are few threads in the internet which are reporting about how difficult it is. My Indy opened it once to clean my throttle body he didn't have any issues but he is a pro and is working on porsches for more than 15 years.

Just FYI, the steps below are just the steps to pull up the top to access the carpet and from there you have to remove the carpet (which seem to be the most difficult part) and open the cover. Re-installation of the carpet seem to be another very difficult part:

MOVING CONVERTIBLE-TOP TO SERVICE POSITION:

1. Remove left and right wind deflector inserts from the roll over bar.

2. Open the convertible top until a dimension of approximately 100 mm is achieved between the windshield frame and the front convertible top bow.

3. Reach through the opening in the roll-over bar and unclip the tension ropes from the guides on both sides.

4. Open the convertible top until a dimension of approximately 470 mm is achieved between the windshield frame and the front convertible top bow.

5. With the rear lid open, grab the rear tension bow from the outside and pull upwards.

6. Loosen retaining strap from the mounting on the rear tension bow.

7. Pull Retaining strap over the convertible top covering to the left convertible-top tip and attach.

ENDING CONVERTIBLE-TOP SERVICE POSITION:

1. Disengage retaining strap and clip into the catches on the tension bow.

2. Fold tension bow back out of the service position and into the original position.

3. Reach through the opening in the roll-over bar and clip the tension ropes into the guides on both sides.

4. Close convertible top and install wind deflector inserts.

CaymanCarver

Interesting...
Removing the top cover on the Cayman is a lot less involved than on the Boxster, but is absolutely necessary to pull the front cover-carpet behind the seats.

Found the instructions for the Cayman on Planet Nine here (pdf download w/pics): LINK
Definitely have to remove a few trim pieces, the top carpet and the "Arch-Bar" first. After that the front carpet removal is a breeze.
So while I'm in there I'll pop the top cover too and take a look inside.

The really good news is - I'm not a crazy person!

The Black Caiman made me bleed my own blood (for the 1st time, but not the last)

CaymanCarver

Hey can anybody tell me if item #2 & #6 in the diagram above are the same pulley/roller part?

The Tensioner Pulley is easy to find on-line.

But nothing popping up specifically for the Idler pulley.

Porsche onLine has a complete Idler assembly w/Pulley, but shouldn't be necessary to change the whole thing.

Anybody changed these on their 981?

Viper pilot

For my 981 Cayman you definitely DO NOT have to pull the top engine cover or carpet over that cover to remove to front carpet/cover. Lots of on-line documentation how to gain access to the front cover.

CaymanCarver

I think you're right. The doc I linked to shows how to get to the fasteners for the metal arch.. once that's removed the rest is easy.

But no words on the Idler Pulley eh?
I called the folks at Pelican said you have to buy the entire assembly.. so looks like that's what I'm gonna do.