by Motang2 » Mon Nov 22, 2021 1:40 am
Decided to take the plunge so went ahead and did job. I got help from mechanical friends (on the phone), common sense and Google (even if some of it I think was shit!). A week later all done and tested, very happy with the job!
I am a self taught handyman and I found the job a little tough not knowing some of the procedures and possible pitfalls, in retrospect I would of preferred a manual or to have even taken it to my local garage to fix but hey, we are in Covid Lockdown and I guess I got the time to do it!
Here are some handy hints, procedures and pitfalls I learnt on this job! Appreciate comments please, you may have some better ideas or tricks etc?
1) I removed the radiator for better access (not all members agreed with this?) I also wanted to remove the AC condenser but thought against it as I didn't want to deal with re-gassing problems!
2) I used a 24mm socket and strong arm against the chassis and a flick on the starter motor to crack the crankshaft pulley bolt.
3) I made a suitable lever from 30 x 6mm MS flat, I drilled two 8mm holes in it, ground the centre and bolted it to the camshaft sprocket in order to crack the sprocket bolt. I thought the 2 o'clock retainer timing bolt was inadequate to hold the sprocket as the bolt was bloody tight! I also did not want to risk the possibility of damage from bottoming out the valves onto the pistons??
4) With a white marker, I marked a tooth position of the crankshaft gear, the camshaft sprocket, and the injector pump sprocket on both the gears and on the old timing belt before disassembly. This is a great for re-assembly, you can transfer the marks to your new belt and providing you have your 3 sprockets at TDC on No1, all marks should line up!