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NOTE - Expand Thread to see all 3 pics
As mentioned on Bay 13, the hardest parts about getting the Timing Belt on and off, (without removing the crankshaft pulley) is threading it behind the crankshaft pulley - I quote “This is not easy the first time, and even dealer Technicians find this hard and will break the 30mm nut loose with an impact gun (to not rotate the crankshaft), and pull the pulley out or off.”.
Sure enough I was having a bear of a time. For me, it was not so much the clearance behind the pulley as it was the clearance between the pulley and the motor mount – particularly since the belt has to make an immediate bend to “S” around the mount, behind the pulley, and around the black plastic tab.. Getting the old one off was so difficult, I almost cut the belt. Getting the new one in cost me almost an hour. I removed a bolt on the mount just to get that extra little clearance… while trying to get to the second bolt, I found that with a pry bar, I could bring the whole thing up just about a bolts width, and insert a ¼” socket extension between the rubber and metal in the mount to keep the engine raised. See pic. (BTW – I was replacing the strut at the same time, so the strut is removed and the black bungee chord you see in the pic was there to keep the rotor assembly from putting stress on the brakeline).
This gave me just enough clearance to get the belt in and out with much greater ease. With the engine raised, I did not have to follow such a severe “S” channel to get the belt in. Getting the belt pas the mount was easy, and provided much more “play” to get around the pulley and behind the plastic tab.
LOL, I almost question if having the ability to do this (pry the engine up without disconnecting anything) means I have a faulty motor mount or something. For me, I already had that top bolt removed, and so I left it that way when I took the pics, but I found afterward that the pry technique worked with or without that top bolt removed.
If you can tell from this that I have another problem – related to the mount – please let me know… Otherwise, this may be worth a try for others out there – who knows, maybe you have the same situation.
Cheers
FOR LARGER IMAGE - CLICK HERE
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1995 850T Wagon 120k
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