A good idea.  Remember you're seeing this from a bad angle so it looks a little worse than it actually feels with the end of your finger.

 

 

That's my best attempt.  I spent hours doing just this the other day and that's as close as  i got pretty much by luck.  Once you turn the engine over a few times (after applying finger pressure on  the run between the cam and crank sprocket) that's the worst place it comes back to.

 

Looks marginally better here but I don't think I'd turned the engine over again just a different angle with the camera:

 

Is that too tight or too slack?  Should I retension?  I would go straight ahead if I was confident I could get it right quickly but I spent hours the other day on this bit and was worried about knackering the thread in the engine block or the tensioner itself.

 

Advice on a good way to tension these would be good.  Not too tight for Water Pump of course and not too slack to avoid slipping I guess.

Edited 15 November, 20169 yr by cosaw

When I did my AUD in my Ibiza, I tensioned it up to get the indicator aligned, turned it over twice, did the "can I twist the belt trough 90deg"  fitted the covers and never went back to see where the indicator was. :)

Edit: Corrected post it didn't make sense.

 

OK - sounds good.  So I shouldn't be able to turn the run of belt from the cam to crankshaft sproket more than 90 degrees?

 

Just tried - I can get it to 45 but I'd have to force it to 90.  I'm not gonna try and force anything these days, things go wrong.

Edited 15 November, 20169 yr by cosaw
Corrections.

That sounds as if it's pretty much spot on. 

 

It'll be fine but make sure the cover isn't touching anything before finishing, then relax and ENJOY the car!

 

 

 

Hi Duffy - did you see the pictures on the last page?  Or are you commenting on the 90 degree turn method?

 

Yes I worry too much - it's an illness unfortunately.

 

Just thinking though.  On the longest run (from the top of the cam sprocket to the crank sprocket) you'll get the same tension and TWIST whatever.  Unless you twist so hard that the spockets and timing marks shift.  After all it's a fixed number of teeth and you don't want the timing marks to move - twist and tension, in that run, will always be the same - while engine is not running and marks and sprockets aligned/stationary.

If the tensioner was too slack, you would be able to easily twist the belt through more than 90deg as the slack would allow the cam to rotate slightly

Yes I get your point nige.  You are right.  Well it's left for another day now.  Got stuff on tomorrow so bus and train!!

 

Could do with the pictures on the end of the last page being repeated but don't know if you're allowed to do that.

I'm bumping the pictures forward (from the end of the last page) to this page, if that's alright?.  Can't do anything on the car today anyway so they might as well be where people can see them.

 

Quote

A good idea.  Remember you're seeing this from a bad angle so it looks a little worse than it actually feels with the end of your finger.

 

 

That's my best attempt.  I spent hours doing just this the other day and that's as close as  i got pretty much by luck.  Once you turn the engine over a few times (after applying finger pressure on  the run between the cam and crank sprocket) that's the worst place it comes back to.

 

Looks marginally better here but I don't think I'd turned the engine over again just a different angle with the camera:

 

Is that too tight or too slack?  Should I retension?  I would go straight ahead if I was confident I could get it right quickly but I spent hours the other day on this bit and was worried about knackering the thread in the engine block or the tensioner itself.

 

Advice on a good way to tension these would be good.  Not too tight for Water Pump of course and not too slack to avoid slipping I guess.

 

Edited 16 November, 20169 yr by cosaw

Hey all.  Just finished putting my car back together.  Thanks to everyone that helped me out along the way - as usual!

 

Well I'll feel happier a month down the line and I've only been to put petrol in so far and air in the tires so literally 2 miles at 30 mph.  I've put some cardboard under the engine on the drive just to make sure that oil leak doesn't come back.  Hopefully it won't now that I've put the lower cam-belt cover bolts back.  They hold your engine together you know!!   And that the rear one has been missing for god knows how many years, wouldn't it be my luck that when I decide to leave the front one out I get an oil leak??

 

So I re-tensioned the belt around 3 times this afternoon.  What an absolute pain in the ar*e.  I'm surprised that nobody else on here has had problems - maybe they're just not reading this thread!  So in the end I got it a bit on the tighter side of past the notch (so the opposite of the pictures above).  I thought sod it they must allow for a degree of error and unless I'm doing something completely wrong I can't see my local Halfrauds spending as much time faffing as me on this.

 

Learnt a lot of course but am getting tired of working on my own car.  Hopefully one day I'll get a decent job and be able to pay the stealerships and be blissfully unaware of what they're doing to my car!  Then I'll be successfully drawn in to the capitalist system!

 

Sorry for the rant but it was about time.  Wish me luck on this one.

Edited 17 November, 20169 yr by cosaw