I've been advised to change the water pump, timing belt tensioner and front cam and crank seals at the same time that I replace the timing belt on my '96, 960. Is there anything else that I should consider while doing this and are there specific instructions for doing this in the FAQ section ? I want to have ALL of the parts available when I start this project.

Just change the belt. I have gone the expensive way and the cheap way. I have a 97, 960 with a 162,000 and all I did again was just the timing belt. I checked for all the signs of wear and checked for wobble, still tight and not leaking. Besides that the front crank seal is a real mother to get off. Good luck.

Thanks to all of you who responded. I'm going to follow the advice of the majority and change the timing belt only UNLESS I see or feel something suspicious.

In the last 2 months I have changed the T-belt on our 98 S90 with 67,000 miles and our 95 964 with 152,000 miles.

On the S90 I only replaced the belt. I checked all the pulleys, tentioner and water pump and all were fine.

On the 960 I changed the belt, tensioner, tensioner pulley and idler puller. I left the water pump alone. These are very stout units and there was no leaks, unusual noises or too much play.

Why change the cam seals unless you have a problem, If you don't have a problem I suggest leaving them alone.

DEWFPO
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1998 S90 068,300 and 1995 964 152,300

I changed all belts, pulleys and tensioners at 140k. As far as I know the waterpump is original and left it alone since it's not showing any signs of failure. As jbowers said earlier, it's fairly simple to get to the waterpump when/if the time comes to replace it.

Good Luck.

95' 964 145k

I didn't change any of that stuff when I did my car at 70K. So far none of the "other" things have failed or become a problem at 114K.

The amount of work involved in changing the 960's timing belt is so low that you can easily do it again if one of the other parts fail. The work of changing seals etc. is greater than the belt by itself. The belt is an easy one evening job. It took me about 2 hours the first time from hood up to car on the ground with the engine running. I'll bet the next time is less than 1.5 hrs.
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'96 965 with 16' wheels at 113K. Had '85 745 Turbo Diesel for 200K.

Thanks for your response. I forgot to mention that my car has 135k miles and the belt was changed previously at approximately 70k. So you don't think I should replace the water pump either?

I do plan to replace the pump at my 140K mark, along with the idler/tensioner pulley, but if your pump was done at 70K it should be OK. Do you know if it has ever been changed?
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'96 965 with 16' wheels at 113K. Had '85 745 Turbo Diesel for 200K.

I don't know if the water pump was replaced at 70k or not; same with the tensioner. That's why I thought I'd just replace them all while I'm doing this.
What about specific instructions for doing this? Anywhere in FAQ ?

I would agree with Jim Bowers about the tensioner pulley, idler pulley & water pump. The only hard thing about the water pump is not being able to see very well when you're trying to clean off all the old gasket residue. You need a light and a mirror. I used a piece of hardwood (maple) with sharp edges to scrape off the gasket material without marring or gouging the aluminum block.

All the other items are just bolted in.

The justification of the expense of these items was that they can sometimes want to sieze, and if this happens on any of these items, you're dogmeat.

The tensioner, the pulleys and the water pump are all on the order of $75 each from good Volvo dealer. The whole group is ~$300 and that's the cost of your timing component failure insurance for the next 100+ kmiles.