Hey Gang,

I'm on the home stretch of doing the cam chain tensioner seals and the timing belt, and I'm unable to get the new timing belt on for want of probably another quarter of an inch. I haven't tried to put the old belt back on, but as I recall, it surely didn't feel at all tight; even with the belt tensioner only partially compressed.

Any thoughts or pearls of wisdom?

Where's Seven of Nine when I need her?

Best regards,
Shipo

 

I don't know if this will make much of a difference, but yesterday when I was trying to put the belt on I was out in thirty-two degree weather; I'm going to try again but this time I'm going to make sure the belt is nice and warm before I try putting it on.

 

I had a similar issue when trying to get my new timing belt on. I was convinced that I was doing something wrong. It ended up that when I was trying to get the belt on, I didn't have it seated around the water pump pulley properly. As soon as I got the belt in the correct spot on that pulley (the smooth side, not the toothed side), the teeth slid perfectly onto the cam and crank sprockets.

or it could be something else entirely

good luck

 

Thanks for the comments. I've tried putting the belt on a couple of different ways (saving the water pump pulley till last, saving a cam sprocket till last, and saving the tensioner till last), so far at least I'm batting a .000. That I'm wondering is if my belt is just too cold and stiff, and if I "bake" it at say 120 °F for an hour or so it might be just that much more flexible and/or longer to allow me to get it on.

 

It's worth a try for sure - new belts are a pain in the *** to seat. You almost need to partially seat it on each toothed sprocket and the push it fully on little by little at each sprocket. Start at the crank and work your way around the belt pathway such that the tensioner is the last part you "complete" - you want all the slack in the belt to end up at the tensioner, and all the other runs from component to component to be taut.

Once tension is applied, make sure your timing marks are all aligned before and after you hand-rotate the crank two full revolutions. If you have a 1.8T, it's notorious for pulling itself out by a tooth on the cam when you apply tension, to the point that you may need to bias the cam sprocket forward by one tooth so that it aligns when the tensioner pin is pulled.

 

Just curious , what engine do you have? If is a 2.8 then do you have the cam pulleys loose?
When i have a difficult time getting a belt on i usually find the belt is not on the crank pulley correctly.
Another trick that i will do is to unbolt the tensioner , make sure the belt is on all the other pulleys & install the tensioner with the belt on.

Hope this helps!

 

Yup, the engine is an early 30-Valve 2.8, and the cam sprockets spin freely. I've checked, removed, reinstalled, and rechecked the belt on the crank sprocket; no problems there. If the "baked belt" trick doesn't work I'll try your suggestion installing the tensioner with the belt on. Oh, and thanks for your various suggestions during this process; I really appreciate it.

 

Thanks for your suggestion on the bit-by-bit approach to seating the belt. I tried that to a certain degree, but nowhere near as painstakingly careful as you're suggesting. I'll keep y'all posted on how I make out.

 

I had some trouble getting mine back on as well. (I have a 12v) iirc I ended up putting the belt on everywhere but the tensioner and installing the tensioner last, it was a PITA this way but it worked. You might try using a pry bar or long screwdriver to stretch the belt into place also, if you do, be careful not to F the belt up of course.

 

pry bar FTW! lol while i was doing mine, my dad walks up to me and said i didnt know i raised a daughter and just muscled it on there. put me to shaaaame lol