nsully

The list of "while you're in there" items continues to grow and one is the Power Steering Belt. I have the cover off and am ready to loosen the bolt for the large gear. My concern is the Workshop Manual indicates the use of a special tool to hold the gear/shaft while loosening and tightening. Those of you that have done this item - did you just loosen /tighten against the resistance of the shaft? Or, did you rig up a unique method to hold the gear?
Thanks in advance
Neil

chris walrod

Is the engine still in the car, or out?

nsully

Hi Chris,
Tranny is out.
Neil

chris walrod

You can walk the belt on by leaving the pulleys alone as I hate messing with them since cam timing can be disturbed.

Just need someone to turn the engine over by hand when you walk the belt onto the pulleys. Two person job indeed.

Mike J

So the engine is in, but the tranny is out?

I find this belt change to be a bit of a bear, since there is no adjustment. I seem to remember last time I removed the mounting bolts for the PS pump, tilted it forward to allow for the belt to come off/on. However, even doing that, its a very tight fit. I did not remove any pulleys (see my warning below). Last time was while the tranny and engine was in the car, that was a real challenge. The time before was with an engine out of the car, it was much better.

I have not done it with just the tranny out, but it should be easier. Remember one pulley is bolted to the end of the camshaft (the lower one), so NO removal with impact guns etc. I would not remove the pulley from the camshaft at all unless you had a way to secure the camshaft. The only way to do that is to take off the front chain covers, which is a LOT of work. If you torque on this camshaft bolt too much, you will slip the cam to the front cam sprocket, put the cams out of line, and run the risk of having the pistons hitting the valves, etc. Not pretty.

By tilting the PS pump, and using some appropriate prying tools, and rotating the engine, you should be able to remove and install the new belt by walking the belt on.

I have not hear of many of these belts failing though. What is the mileage of your car and how does the belt look?

Cheers,

Mike

nsully

The manual is not real clear ( at least to me) and I had interpreted the belt removal/install to be by removal of the large gear.
Glad I asked.
I am at 78K and the belt looks fine. What is a typical sign of wear on these things?
I am very tempted to close it right up and be satisfied that it appears to be in good condition.
Neil

Mike J

Look at the belt, is it cracked? How to the inside ribs look, are they worn, torn, or missing? Look at the edge of the belt, does it look good (you can see the edge of the cords this way) or worn?

If I had the tranny out, cover off, and new belt in hand, then go for it. However, definitely the belt is on pretty tight and will take a bit of work to slide it on and off.

However, the one I took off my car at 80,000 miles looked fine, and I only replaced it because I had the engine apart it its easy then.

Cheers,

Mike

AOW162435

Does it look like my right rear tire?

If so, let's walk next Sunday...


Andreas

tj90

I just replaced the belt on mine. It was easy. Remove the 3 bolts that hold the pump pulley. THe toothed gear comes off with the belt. Take new belt and pulley and try to line up the bolt holes in the pulley to the pump. Install - no problem. The bolt torques are listed in the torque table on pcarworkshop. You guys above are talking about walking the belt on and such - I did not have to do any of that by taking off the pump pulley...

Just as an aside - the belt on mine with 120k miles on the clock looked to be in good shape. No cracks frays anything. Frankly this belt is more robust than some timing belts Ive seen. Porsche designed this one to last. I wound not bother worrying about it unless you need a new clutch or something.

nsully

That is very interesting. Thanks. I have not done a thing-yet. The belt looks to be in great condition. On the other hand this is the optimum time to do it. The manual states that you use locking compound on those 3 bolts and they are self locking. The belt keeps the pump shaft from spinning?
Neil

AOW162435

nsullysizzle,
If it's as 'easy' as tj90 states, I would do it. It will be a long time before you have this kind of access again.


Andreas

tj90

Yes. Use locking compound on the 3 bolts. I forgot to mention that. I opted for the blue (medium) strength loctite. The bolts looked like they had blue from the factory. (Frankly, so many bolts on the porsche are soft (I had a few allen heads deform while trying to remove my valve cover gaskets) it would be hard to convince me to use the full strength loctite on anything on that motor.


I agree with you - if you have an optimum time to change, go for it. Its cheap enough and a good PM item.

I dont know if the pump will spin w/o the belt or not. It does not matter. I was just saying that the hardest part of the job is to line up the bolt holes (which is actually not that hard at all).

AOW162435

Well, have you replaced the belt????






Andreas

nsully

YES SIR!
Bolted up that flywheel and came in to find the value for the clearance of the flywheel position sensor. Hastily, threw out a post asking for that information. Upon hitting the submit icon I experienced epiphany and instead did a "search".
Thank you Mr. Walrod! 1mm~0.40

mr_bock

A quick question... can the flywheel position sensor be replaced and adjusted while the engine is in the car? I am getting misfire fault codes for cylinder 3 and 6. I don't ever feel/hear a misfire and the faults are making me fail Virginia State emissions test.

Any input/help would be most appreciated!!!!!