Post by Wickedtoyz on Dec 27, 2011 14:21:37 GMT -5
Found this on ToyotaNation
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The best way to get the crankshaft nut off is to use the bump start method. Here's a video of how it's done. Just put a breaker bar at the 4:00 position, wedge it on the ground, remove the engine and EFI fuse, then click the starter, once, maybe twice. Just a click. It will come right off, no problem.
There has been some hysteria about the car jumping off the jack stands. I guess it could happen, pretty unlikely, but if you're worried, just put a floor jack under the car in the center, there is a dimple in the frame behind the radiator, in the center of the car if you want to be super safe. The problem is not getting the bolt off, it's getting it back on. You can put it on with an impact wrench, but mine is only good for 80 ft. lbs. You need to torque it to 160 ft. lbs. If you attempt to torque it with a torque wrench, you will just end up turning over the engine. The Club is the solution. Just bolt it to the crankshaft pulley, wedge it against the drive shaft or frame, and torque away. It can also be used to remove the bolt if you want.
One problem I had was getting the top timing cover off after I removed the 5 bolts. No matter how hard I tried it wouldn't fit past the Power Steering drain hose, and I had to remove the hose from the Power Steering reservoir plastic tank. I sucked out all the oil I could with a turkey baster, and put lots of rags underneath it, but it still dripped enough oil to make a mess. It would probably have been a better plan to remove the three mounting bolts that held it to the firewall and then I could have tipped it up after I removed the hose and minimized the oil leaking out. After I stocked up the mess I pushed the power steering hose out of the way, and the top Timing Cover slipped right out. Be sure to remember to add A/T fluid after you are done.
I was confused about was the markings on the Timing Belt. I didn't get much help at either Autozone or Kragen. None of them gave me an answer I thought was correct. And to be honest, I didn't find anything here on Toyota Nation that made it any clearer either. After I got mine apart I figured it out. Here's the straight scoop on the Timing Belt markings. First off if you look for any marks on your old Timing Belt you probably won't find any. The side with the markings is what drives the water pump so they are worn off long ago. Depending on where you got you belt you will probably have 3 sets of marks. Two straight lines, those are for the right and left Camshafts. There will be one dotted line or maybe a string of dots, and there will only be one of these marks. This is for the Crankshaft.
In some of the manuals you will see reference to the "Front Mark". None of the belts I saw had anything marked "Front" on it. To make matters more confusing, if you count the number of bumps between the solid line and the dotted one, they are different from the right hand mark and the left hand mark. As near as I can figure out there is no "Front Mark" marked on the belt. It is simply the manufacturers logo. And that logo faces to the right when facing the engine.
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Now in mark780's write up he says to line up the camshaft mark with the timing cover mark, and line up the mark on what's called the "Timing Belt Guide" to the 12 'clock position. I did that, and marked the Camshaft notches, as well as the 6:30 position on the old belt, as well as the Timing Belt Guide so I could get everything back to where it was in case I needed to. When I positioned the new Timing Belt on the Camshafts, lined up the Camshaft marks and I thought the dotted line would line up with something, but it didn't. So I slipped off the Timing Belt Guide, (it's a flat concave 1/8" thick 2" wide washer that is keyed, and fits on the Crankshaft. Here's a diagram, it's part #13567.
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When it came off, I noticed that there was a dimple on the toothed gear behind it at maybe the 4:00 position. When I lined up the dotted line on the new Timing Belt with this dimple on the gear, then the camshafts marks lined up and the logo printed on the belt was facing to the right, and I was happy. Now it all made sense. So follow the instructions then remove the Timing Belt Guide washer, position the dotted line on the Timing belt to the dimple on the toothed crankshaft gear, snake the belt around the water pump, the right camshaft, and then the left one, lining up the marks, and you will be good to go. I used small woodworking clamps to hold the Timing Belt to the Crankshaft, and one to the right hand Camshaft while I positioned the marks on the left hand Camshaft. The left hand Camshaft is hard to get to, and as I was adjusting it to line up with the mark on the Timing Belt, I guess I moved the camshaft too far and it slipped a good half turn as the cam moved over center on the valve. Now I had a problem. I had loosened the bolt using the timing belt and the special tool. So I couldn't rotate the Camshaft counter clockwise to get it back up on the cam where it needed to be. The Lisle tool saved my bacon. With it I was able to hold the pulley, tighten the nut and then rotate the pulley counterclockwise and then line up the marks. So don't move the left hand gear too much if you can help it while lining up the marks with the Timing Belt. Something to note on the Camshaft gears. The part numbers for them are the same (13523P) but the one on the left has the lip facing towards you, and the one on the right has the lip facing the engine. I don't know what harm there would be to reverse them, or to put them on both the same way, but it might save some grief just to mark them "left" and "right" so you can get them back in the right place and the correct orientation.
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With this dry run out of the way, I removed the Timing Belt and then proceeded to remove the water pump.
The Water Pump was pretty straightforward with the exception of the damn studs. Marc780 says to wiggle the water pump around and it will come off. No amount of wiggling worked for me. Maybe his 2002 model fixed the clearance problem. Others have said that you can jack up the motor a bit, and the water pump will come off, but I didn't try that. Haynes says to remove the studs with a star socket. No chance that works. The stud has blue locktite on it and it is stuck in the block real good. I tried double nuts, and that didn't work. I needed vice grips to get it out and munged up the stud pretty good. Now I had to go to the dealer to get a new stud. Just my luck they didn't have any. Others have said to replace the stud with a bolt. Seemed like the thing to do, so I had the guy search around the parts bin and came up with Toyota part number 90119-08811. It fit perfectly. You could just as easily got one at your local hardware store; it needs to be 100mm long 8x1.25. I wouldn't recommend getting two more stock bolts like the ones used in the water pump. The reason, which I found out too late, is that you will need to have them a bit longer to allow for the alternator bracket. I don't know if the regular bolts will be long enough, but I do know the bolts for the part 90119-08811 are long enough. Just add washers if the bolts bottom out. Unfortunately I cut about a 1/2" off the bolts to match the length of the stock bolts, and that was a mistake. I could feel that I didn't have enough threads biting, and if I over tightened the bolts, I was going to strip out the threads in the block. So leave the bolts long and use washer, or maybe a 3/8" nut as a spacer. Or you can just get two more studs and leave it stock and try to wrestle the water pump back onto the studs. Or you can get the two bolts part 90119-08811 and saw off the head and make them studs. I used a tap to stock out the Locktite gunk out of the threads in the block.
Replacing the water pump went smoothly after that small detour around the studs/bolt thing. One thing marc780 mentions is to assemble the RH Engine Bracket assembly first. That's the thing that attaches to the front of the water pump and supports the "dog bone" motor mount. He is correct and I did that, but later found out I needed to do something else. When I dissembled the "dog bone" dampener I left everything bolted together. I figured it would make it easier to re-install. That was a mistake. You can leave it together, but loosen all of the bolts. The reason is that instead of having a couple of dowel pins to locate the exact position of the RH Engine Bracket, like they did with the water pump, Toyota decided to just let it slop around. So depending on how you position it on the water pump, it may or may not line up after you assemble everything. Mine was off 1/4" and I was able to file out some of the holes in the mounts to allow me to wiggle all of them enough to make things line up. My suggestion would be to assemble the RH Motor Mount, attach the Dog bone with all the straps, line everything up, then bolt the RH Engine Bracket to the Water Pump and you can always remove the Dog bone and all that other stuff if you need the clearance. Another Dog Bone note. Be sure to mark which way is up on the Dog Bone. It will fit in both ways, only one way however is correct. Save yourself some grief and mark the top of the Dog Bone before you remove it.
In addition to installing the RH Engine Bracket before the Timing Belt Covers, you need to install the Top one first, then the bottom one. Since I was in the fender well, I figured I'd install the bottom cover, the PS belt and then the AC belt, and move to the top cover. Seemed logical, right? Big mistake. The Top didn't fit, so I had to remove the PS belt, the AC belt, and the bottom Timing Belt cover, then install the top one, then the bottom one again and then the PS and AC belts. I'm getting pretty good at changing those two belts. :headbang:
One other caution if you decide on replacing the studs with bolts. You will need to hacksaw a slot in the alternator bracket. You will see that there is a slot in one end where it attaches to the Alternator, but a round hole where it fits over the stud. Well I found out about that a bit too late. I had everything put together and went to attach that bracket and there was a bolt head where the stud used to be. Soooo, I just sawed a slot in the other end of the Alternator bracket and bolted it up. Otherwise I would have had to remove the PS and AC belts, the timing covers, the RH Engine Bracket, then put the bolt through the hole and re-assemble everything, fergitaboutit, saw a slot in the bracket.
I'm happy to say that it started right up, ran much better than it did before the Timing Belt change and I think I know why. Just for the fun of it, I measured the circumference of the old belt. It was 1/2" longer than the new one. It had stretched that much, almost 2 teeth, so the timing was probably not up to factory spec. And I'm betting that's why they recommend changing the belt every 90,000 miles because the belt I took out of my car after 110,000 miles looked like it could have gone another 100,000 miles. It was in great shape, no cracks, no frays, no nothing. But since nothing could stop the belt from stretching over time, 90,000 miles was probably the sweet spot to change it and restore the performance lost over time.
When I first took it out for a drive the temperature gauge fluctuated and got real close to the red line hot. I initially freaked out, all that work and I might have to do it all over again if it was a bad water pump. :confused:
But since there really isn't much that can go wrong with a water pump, I figured it might be one of the connections since the temp gauge would be at the 3:15 position, and then jump to the red line hot position. Just by chance I cracked the radiator cap and it was gurgle city. Lots of bubbles came into the coolant tank. So I guess there was some air trapped in there after a complete radiator and block drain, and that might be the cause. Turns out it was. I filled up the coolant tank and went off for another drive. There was some gurgling that I could hear in the heater core, but the temp gauge was steady in the mid range, just like it was before I started all of this. I went back and "burped" the cooling system one more time and everything was fine after that. It's hard to believe that the temperature sensor is sensitive enough to register the difference between the coolant and bubbles, which I guess are hotter, as the coolant is circulated. Who knew.
The whole thing took a weekend, about 10 hours. Having never done a timing belt, idlers, water pump change, it wasn't too bad. A bit frustrating to be sure. But since the dealer wanted almost $1,000 to do what I did for $200 in parts, it made the ordeal worth it. The next time, as they say, will be a lot easier.[/QUOTE]
After reading through many posts here on Toyota Nation, about how to change a timing belt I decided that I'd attempt it. I have a 2000 Camry LE 6 cyl with 210,000 miles on it. And the last time the timing belt was changed was at 90,000 miles so it was time. The water pump has never been changed. I searched the Gen 3-4 forum and didn't find a procedure for my year and model. There was one for a 4, but not the 6 so I thought I'd post this as a new thread. There was a very detailed write up over in the Gen 5 for a 2002 and most is applicable to the Gen 4 Camry 6cyl.
I bought the parts from Autozone, Kragen and the seals and other specialty stuff like the radiator drain plug, the special super duper anti-freeze from the dealer. I opted not to buy them online, only because if there was a problem with fit, I could return it locally and get it exchanged pronto. It's the only car I have, so I didn't want the hassle of returning the parts I bought on the Internet.
The instructions provided by marc780 www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160972&highlight=v6+timing+belt+replace were complete, and exact. I only want to add a few things that I came across that might be helpful if you attempt this yourself. The article references a 2002 Camry but I found virtually no differences between the 2002 pics and my 2000. My thanks to marc780 for taking the time to explain everything and to take the pics. It was a great write up.
The whole project took just regular tools, nothing special with two exceptions. One tool that I found very helpful was this one
www.amazon.com/Lisle-38220-Universal-Cam-Adjuster/dp/B0002SQZPO It came in handy to hold the camshafts while removing the bolts, and even more handy rotating them to get them in exact position to line up the marks on the Timing Belt. Doesn't cost too much either.
The other special tool is the "Club". You might have seen this one i100.photobucket.com/albums/m39/dz63/96%20Camry%2022L%20Auto%205S-FE%20Timing%20Belt/clubdims.jpg from this write up on Toyota Nation www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=264425 I have two problems with this one. The first is that I don't have a piece of 3 1/2" diameter steel bar stock laying around, and even if I did, I don't have a means to cut a piece of 3 1/2" bar stock, nor do I have a lathe to machine it. :eek:
I had to find another way to do it. I found it at Home Depot, in the plumbing department, a 1 1/2" floor flange, and a 1 1/2" three inch long nipple. I had a piece of 1" diameter pipe lying around, but 3/4" diameter pipe would work fine. The spacing of the bolt holes is different for a 2000 model year 6 cyl Camry. The correct spacing is 65mm, not 72mm as shown. All of the other dimensions are correct for a 2000 Camry 6cyl. As you can see from the pics you will have to grind the sides of the nipple to get the correct spacing (65mm) and even then it is pretty tight. I used socket head set screws, bolt heads were too wide. I cut the floor flange to 3 1/2" in diameter with a torch, but you could grind it just as easily. The clearances aren't that important, just don't make it bigger than 3 3/4". The floor flange has a relief in the bottom that nicely clears the nut and the washer on the crankshaft. Make sure that there is at least 1 1/2" from the bottom of the flange and the bottom of the pipe. This is to clear the relief machined in the crankshaft pulley. Notice that mine is bent a bit. I had to bend it a bit to clear. I cut the treads off one end of the nipple so as to have solid steel to weld to, but after I made it, it's not really necessary. Just weld to the treads. It will be plenty strong. Cutting and welding galvanized steel is a smoky, stinky business. Open all the doors and windows. My suggestion is to grind off all of the galvanizing first, especially where it will be welded. I couldn't find any black iron floor flanges or nipples. But if you can get them, use black iron for sure. The black iron parts will cost less as well. Here's what I came up with.
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I bought the parts from Autozone, Kragen and the seals and other specialty stuff like the radiator drain plug, the special super duper anti-freeze from the dealer. I opted not to buy them online, only because if there was a problem with fit, I could return it locally and get it exchanged pronto. It's the only car I have, so I didn't want the hassle of returning the parts I bought on the Internet.
The instructions provided by marc780 www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=160972&highlight=v6+timing+belt+replace were complete, and exact. I only want to add a few things that I came across that might be helpful if you attempt this yourself. The article references a 2002 Camry but I found virtually no differences between the 2002 pics and my 2000. My thanks to marc780 for taking the time to explain everything and to take the pics. It was a great write up.
The whole project took just regular tools, nothing special with two exceptions. One tool that I found very helpful was this one
The other special tool is the "Club". You might have seen this one i100.photobucket.com/albums/m39/dz63/96%20Camry%2022L%20Auto%205S-FE%20Timing%20Belt/clubdims.jpg from this write up on Toyota Nation www.toyotanation.com/forum/showthread.php?t=264425 I have two problems with this one. The first is that I don't have a piece of 3 1/2" diameter steel bar stock laying around, and even if I did, I don't have a means to cut a piece of 3 1/2" bar stock, nor do I have a lathe to machine it. :eek:
I had to find another way to do it. I found it at Home Depot, in the plumbing department, a 1 1/2" floor flange, and a 1 1/2" three inch long nipple. I had a piece of 1" diameter pipe lying around, but 3/4" diameter pipe would work fine. The spacing of the bolt holes is different for a 2000 model year 6 cyl Camry. The correct spacing is 65mm, not 72mm as shown. All of the other dimensions are correct for a 2000 Camry 6cyl. As you can see from the pics you will have to grind the sides of the nipple to get the correct spacing (65mm) and even then it is pretty tight. I used socket head set screws, bolt heads were too wide. I cut the floor flange to 3 1/2" in diameter with a torch, but you could grind it just as easily. The clearances aren't that important, just don't make it bigger than 3 3/4". The floor flange has a relief in the bottom that nicely clears the nut and the washer on the crankshaft. Make sure that there is at least 1 1/2" from the bottom of the flange and the bottom of the pipe. This is to clear the relief machined in the crankshaft pulley. Notice that mine is bent a bit. I had to bend it a bit to clear. I cut the treads off one end of the nipple so as to have solid steel to weld to, but after I made it, it's not really necessary. Just weld to the treads. It will be plenty strong. Cutting and welding galvanized steel is a smoky, stinky business. Open all the doors and windows. My suggestion is to grind off all of the galvanizing first, especially where it will be welded. I couldn't find any black iron floor flanges or nipples. But if you can get them, use black iron for sure. The black iron parts will cost less as well. Here's what I came up with.
[URL="
"]The best way to get the crankshaft nut off is to use the bump start method. Here's a video of how it's done. Just put a breaker bar at the 4:00 position, wedge it on the ground, remove the engine and EFI fuse, then click the starter, once, maybe twice. Just a click. It will come right off, no problem.
There has been some hysteria about the car jumping off the jack stands. I guess it could happen, pretty unlikely, but if you're worried, just put a floor jack under the car in the center, there is a dimple in the frame behind the radiator, in the center of the car if you want to be super safe. The problem is not getting the bolt off, it's getting it back on. You can put it on with an impact wrench, but mine is only good for 80 ft. lbs. You need to torque it to 160 ft. lbs. If you attempt to torque it with a torque wrench, you will just end up turning over the engine. The Club is the solution. Just bolt it to the crankshaft pulley, wedge it against the drive shaft or frame, and torque away. It can also be used to remove the bolt if you want.
One problem I had was getting the top timing cover off after I removed the 5 bolts. No matter how hard I tried it wouldn't fit past the Power Steering drain hose, and I had to remove the hose from the Power Steering reservoir plastic tank. I sucked out all the oil I could with a turkey baster, and put lots of rags underneath it, but it still dripped enough oil to make a mess. It would probably have been a better plan to remove the three mounting bolts that held it to the firewall and then I could have tipped it up after I removed the hose and minimized the oil leaking out. After I stocked up the mess I pushed the power steering hose out of the way, and the top Timing Cover slipped right out. Be sure to remember to add A/T fluid after you are done.
I was confused about was the markings on the Timing Belt. I didn't get much help at either Autozone or Kragen. None of them gave me an answer I thought was correct. And to be honest, I didn't find anything here on Toyota Nation that made it any clearer either. After I got mine apart I figured it out. Here's the straight scoop on the Timing Belt markings. First off if you look for any marks on your old Timing Belt you probably won't find any. The side with the markings is what drives the water pump so they are worn off long ago. Depending on where you got you belt you will probably have 3 sets of marks. Two straight lines, those are for the right and left Camshafts. There will be one dotted line or maybe a string of dots, and there will only be one of these marks. This is for the Crankshaft.
In some of the manuals you will see reference to the "Front Mark". None of the belts I saw had anything marked "Front" on it. To make matters more confusing, if you count the number of bumps between the solid line and the dotted one, they are different from the right hand mark and the left hand mark. As near as I can figure out there is no "Front Mark" marked on the belt. It is simply the manufacturers logo. And that logo faces to the right when facing the engine.
[URL="
"][/URL]Now in mark780's write up he says to line up the camshaft mark with the timing cover mark, and line up the mark on what's called the "Timing Belt Guide" to the 12 'clock position. I did that, and marked the Camshaft notches, as well as the 6:30 position on the old belt, as well as the Timing Belt Guide so I could get everything back to where it was in case I needed to. When I positioned the new Timing Belt on the Camshafts, lined up the Camshaft marks and I thought the dotted line would line up with something, but it didn't. So I slipped off the Timing Belt Guide, (it's a flat concave 1/8" thick 2" wide washer that is keyed, and fits on the Crankshaft. Here's a diagram, it's part #13567.
[URL="
"][/URL]When it came off, I noticed that there was a dimple on the toothed gear behind it at maybe the 4:00 position. When I lined up the dotted line on the new Timing Belt with this dimple on the gear, then the camshafts marks lined up and the logo printed on the belt was facing to the right, and I was happy. Now it all made sense. So follow the instructions then remove the Timing Belt Guide washer, position the dotted line on the Timing belt to the dimple on the toothed crankshaft gear, snake the belt around the water pump, the right camshaft, and then the left one, lining up the marks, and you will be good to go. I used small woodworking clamps to hold the Timing Belt to the Crankshaft, and one to the right hand Camshaft while I positioned the marks on the left hand Camshaft. The left hand Camshaft is hard to get to, and as I was adjusting it to line up with the mark on the Timing Belt, I guess I moved the camshaft too far and it slipped a good half turn as the cam moved over center on the valve. Now I had a problem. I had loosened the bolt using the timing belt and the special tool. So I couldn't rotate the Camshaft counter clockwise to get it back up on the cam where it needed to be. The Lisle tool saved my bacon. With it I was able to hold the pulley, tighten the nut and then rotate the pulley counterclockwise and then line up the marks. So don't move the left hand gear too much if you can help it while lining up the marks with the Timing Belt. Something to note on the Camshaft gears. The part numbers for them are the same (13523P) but the one on the left has the lip facing towards you, and the one on the right has the lip facing the engine. I don't know what harm there would be to reverse them, or to put them on both the same way, but it might save some grief just to mark them "left" and "right" so you can get them back in the right place and the correct orientation.
[URL="
"][/URL]With this dry run out of the way, I removed the Timing Belt and then proceeded to remove the water pump.
The Water Pump was pretty straightforward with the exception of the damn studs. Marc780 says to wiggle the water pump around and it will come off. No amount of wiggling worked for me. Maybe his 2002 model fixed the clearance problem. Others have said that you can jack up the motor a bit, and the water pump will come off, but I didn't try that. Haynes says to remove the studs with a star socket. No chance that works. The stud has blue locktite on it and it is stuck in the block real good. I tried double nuts, and that didn't work. I needed vice grips to get it out and munged up the stud pretty good. Now I had to go to the dealer to get a new stud. Just my luck they didn't have any. Others have said to replace the stud with a bolt. Seemed like the thing to do, so I had the guy search around the parts bin and came up with Toyota part number 90119-08811. It fit perfectly. You could just as easily got one at your local hardware store; it needs to be 100mm long 8x1.25. I wouldn't recommend getting two more stock bolts like the ones used in the water pump. The reason, which I found out too late, is that you will need to have them a bit longer to allow for the alternator bracket. I don't know if the regular bolts will be long enough, but I do know the bolts for the part 90119-08811 are long enough. Just add washers if the bolts bottom out. Unfortunately I cut about a 1/2" off the bolts to match the length of the stock bolts, and that was a mistake. I could feel that I didn't have enough threads biting, and if I over tightened the bolts, I was going to strip out the threads in the block. So leave the bolts long and use washer, or maybe a 3/8" nut as a spacer. Or you can just get two more studs and leave it stock and try to wrestle the water pump back onto the studs. Or you can get the two bolts part 90119-08811 and saw off the head and make them studs. I used a tap to stock out the Locktite gunk out of the threads in the block.
Replacing the water pump went smoothly after that small detour around the studs/bolt thing. One thing marc780 mentions is to assemble the RH Engine Bracket assembly first. That's the thing that attaches to the front of the water pump and supports the "dog bone" motor mount. He is correct and I did that, but later found out I needed to do something else. When I dissembled the "dog bone" dampener I left everything bolted together. I figured it would make it easier to re-install. That was a mistake. You can leave it together, but loosen all of the bolts. The reason is that instead of having a couple of dowel pins to locate the exact position of the RH Engine Bracket, like they did with the water pump, Toyota decided to just let it slop around. So depending on how you position it on the water pump, it may or may not line up after you assemble everything. Mine was off 1/4" and I was able to file out some of the holes in the mounts to allow me to wiggle all of them enough to make things line up. My suggestion would be to assemble the RH Motor Mount, attach the Dog bone with all the straps, line everything up, then bolt the RH Engine Bracket to the Water Pump and you can always remove the Dog bone and all that other stuff if you need the clearance. Another Dog Bone note. Be sure to mark which way is up on the Dog Bone. It will fit in both ways, only one way however is correct. Save yourself some grief and mark the top of the Dog Bone before you remove it.
In addition to installing the RH Engine Bracket before the Timing Belt Covers, you need to install the Top one first, then the bottom one. Since I was in the fender well, I figured I'd install the bottom cover, the PS belt and then the AC belt, and move to the top cover. Seemed logical, right? Big mistake. The Top didn't fit, so I had to remove the PS belt, the AC belt, and the bottom Timing Belt cover, then install the top one, then the bottom one again and then the PS and AC belts. I'm getting pretty good at changing those two belts. :headbang:
One other caution if you decide on replacing the studs with bolts. You will need to hacksaw a slot in the alternator bracket. You will see that there is a slot in one end where it attaches to the Alternator, but a round hole where it fits over the stud. Well I found out about that a bit too late. I had everything put together and went to attach that bracket and there was a bolt head where the stud used to be. Soooo, I just sawed a slot in the other end of the Alternator bracket and bolted it up. Otherwise I would have had to remove the PS and AC belts, the timing covers, the RH Engine Bracket, then put the bolt through the hole and re-assemble everything, fergitaboutit, saw a slot in the bracket.
I'm happy to say that it started right up, ran much better than it did before the Timing Belt change and I think I know why. Just for the fun of it, I measured the circumference of the old belt. It was 1/2" longer than the new one. It had stretched that much, almost 2 teeth, so the timing was probably not up to factory spec. And I'm betting that's why they recommend changing the belt every 90,000 miles because the belt I took out of my car after 110,000 miles looked like it could have gone another 100,000 miles. It was in great shape, no cracks, no frays, no nothing. But since nothing could stop the belt from stretching over time, 90,000 miles was probably the sweet spot to change it and restore the performance lost over time.
When I first took it out for a drive the temperature gauge fluctuated and got real close to the red line hot. I initially freaked out, all that work and I might have to do it all over again if it was a bad water pump. :confused:
But since there really isn't much that can go wrong with a water pump, I figured it might be one of the connections since the temp gauge would be at the 3:15 position, and then jump to the red line hot position. Just by chance I cracked the radiator cap and it was gurgle city. Lots of bubbles came into the coolant tank. So I guess there was some air trapped in there after a complete radiator and block drain, and that might be the cause. Turns out it was. I filled up the coolant tank and went off for another drive. There was some gurgling that I could hear in the heater core, but the temp gauge was steady in the mid range, just like it was before I started all of this. I went back and "burped" the cooling system one more time and everything was fine after that. It's hard to believe that the temperature sensor is sensitive enough to register the difference between the coolant and bubbles, which I guess are hotter, as the coolant is circulated. Who knew.
The whole thing took a weekend, about 10 hours. Having never done a timing belt, idlers, water pump change, it wasn't too bad. A bit frustrating to be sure. But since the dealer wanted almost $1,000 to do what I did for $200 in parts, it made the ordeal worth it. The next time, as they say, will be a lot easier.[/QUOTE]
Aww man, at least you tried. What are you planning to try next?
