I asked a few days about changing a timing belt. For anyone curious, here's how it all went. Started off, I decided to take a little peek at my timing belt one day, so I popped off the top of the belt cover. The belt was in horrible shape, looked like it was about to shred. I decided I wouldn't drive the car again until it had a shiny new belt. Went out, got a full set of belts. Although I know I'm supposed to replace the water pump at the same time, I decided to live dangerously. Give everything a look over, post the message about the pulley bolt, and start tearing down. Every thing's pretty straight forward until that pulley bolt. To keep the engine from turning I cut my old alternator belt, wrapped it around the pulley, and tied it to the suspension. I gave my 3/8 ratchet a try since I had it in my hand, broke it. Biked off to work and grabbed my 1/2 long ratchet, both 1/2 breaker bars, 1/2 T-handle, cheater pipe. Broke the second ratchet, both breaker bars, and bent the t-handle into an S. Biked back to work, got my 3/4 t-handle, and a long punch. Popped the head of the bolt hard as possible several times, tried the 3/4 wrench. Snapped the alternator belt, skinned a knee and both elbows. Spent a day trying to hunt down the proper tool to hold the engine, my pulley has that large hex recess. No luck, nobody within biking distance had one or would loan one. I tried stuffing rope in the cylinder, but the looong spark plug tunnel made it just about impossible to get enough rope in there. I still managed to smash the rope enough to turn the engine over. So, I did a mean & nasty thing. I put number one on the compression stroke, pulled the spark plug, filled it up with oil, and put the plug back. That worked like a charm, though. A half hour of bouncing on the wrench and cussing managed to twist my long extension apart. Skinned the remaining knee, and reskinned an elbow. Biked to work, got all of my impact extensions, biked back. Bounced some more, whacked the bolt some more, bounced some more, skinned my lower back, and a butt cheek. Checked to see if the socket broke, nope. No broken tools, bolt was loose! Yippie! Pulled off pulley, discovered the damn cover had nowhere to go. Cussed, fought, and bled until I managed to shimmy it out--sort of down and to the rear. Pulled out water pump belt, marked and removed timing belt. Marked new belt to match, and reinstalled. Put in new water pump belt. Cussed, fought, and bled until I managed to shimmy the cover back into place. Slapped everything together, and discovered I had the wrong alternator belt. Was the size to drive only the alternator, but not AC. Put it on anyway. Pulled the spark plug, turned the engine over by hand a few times to push out the oil. Then I unplugged the coil and cranked the starter a few times to get the rest of the oil out. Hell of a mess! Wiped down the important stuff, put the plug back in, reconnected the coil, and took the top of the belt cover back off. I wanted to watch and see if anything started to shred it. Fired it up, ran like a top. Well, a top that smokes like a chimney. It's great, I worked on my car for several mornings, cussing the entire time in front of my neighbors, and now that I start it, I smoke 'em all out of the area! Nobody will ask me for help. For their own good, I know. Belt tracked fine, no signs of anything rubbing it, put the top back on, and went for a drive to fog mosquitos between home and auto zone. Got there, asked for an AC belt, was told I'll need more than a belt, asked for spark plugs too. Smoked back home, but not so much anymore, changed the AC/Alternator belt, and drove around aimlessly until the last of the smoke cleared out. Then drove to CVS for neosporin and band-aids. Hooray for DYI! I think I'll use water next time. Or rent an air compressor. BTW, the valve cover was apparently leaking oil into the case with the timing belt. I replaced that gasket, though I didn't mention it above, and put some sealant on it to boot. My guess is that the oil rotted the belt rather than anything scraping against it.
- posted
17 years ago