850 140k Major Maintenance

[cronce66]

Nope, I haven't pulled the pin yet, and the tensioner doesn't slide right in when I'm pulling up on the tensioner pulley. I'm pulling up on it as hard as I possibly can. It seems like I'm struggling more than I should, if I'm reading into your posts correctly. Hmmm..... I saw a post in the forum talking about FCP sending them a belt with 143 teeth instead of the 148 that they needed. I guess I'll check that out next. Not sure what else to do. I'm so close to being done, except for this one issue.

Again, thanks for you time and responses. Springboard diving, huh?

[Ozark Lee]

What year is the car and what is the part number of the belt you are putting on? It could indeed be wrong.

Springboard diving, huh?

I had to do something in high school other than work on my AMX.



...Lee

[cronce66]

Lee,

Thanks for the tips. The problem was that I didn't get the belt around the stupid stud directly behind and underneath the crankshaft pulley. Sometimes it just helps to take a break and tackle it the next day.

[schigara]

Great Write up. One tip I would add which applies to T-belt replacement on any car is to use white out to mark the belt and the cam gears and crank pulley. When you get the belt off, lay it on top of the new belt and copy the same marks on the new belt. Makes it so much easier when putting the new belt on to just match up all the marks.

Ofcourse, this only works when the old belt is intact and timed properly to begin with.

[ghalperin]

Excellent tip. I've been doing it this way for years. Don't forget to line up the factory timing marks before painting marks on the belt and gears. It'll help prevent the cam gears from turning when the belt is off. Once I didn't and a cam gear spun and made it very hard to get things ligned up again.

[jreed]

Thanks to all contributors for the initial write up and all the follow-on posts about the timing belt change. I followed this write up and did a successful job thanks to it.

Just a few notes and observations follow:

It took about 6 hours to replace the timing belt, tensioner pulley, tensioner, and idler roller. There were no leaks visible from the water pump so I left it alone. (The car is a '97 Volvo 850 GLT wagon with 130,000 miles.)
I used OEM parts from FCP.

I used the IPD Cam Lock tool but it was difficult to fit it into place and I wouldn't buy it again. The instructions that came with the IPD tool were nice to have, but didn't show enough detail on how and where to install the pins to lock the cam gears. I could only get two of the pins to engage the teeth on the cam gears, so the cam gears could still turn.

I removed the serpentine belt, serpentine belt tensioner and moved the coolant bottle out of the way -- as others have already noted these helped a great deal to provide more visibility and access.

As several posters suggested, I used white-out on the original belt and the intake and exhaust cam gears. Then after I removed the old timing belt, I lined up the new belt with the old belt and transferred the white marks from the old belt to the new belt using a little bit more white-out. When the new belt was on, it was helpful to see the new marks lining up with the marks on the cam gears.

The most difficult part of the job for me was removing the lower timing belt cover. There are two 10mm bolts and my 3/8" drive ratchet & socket were too large to fit inside. I had to use a 10mm closed end wrench and it took about 15 minutes to loosen both bolts. Next time I am going to try a ratcheting wrench.

As many have described, getting the old timing belt out from the crankshaft gear and vibration dampener was difficult. I had to bend the belt over the rubber covered bolt that is hiding underneath the crankshaft gear and take it out from the right side first and then the left. Installing the new belt was easier.

To remove the tensioner pulley I also used the hex-shank T-45 Torx method described in the original write-up. I used an adjustable wrench on the hex shank with a cheater pipe to get enough torque to loosen it.

Thanks again!

[Paul-93-850]

Looks like a good recipe and I'll need to do this at some point.

Is there a tools list and a parts list?
About how much should all of the parts cost?

[dcarlson12]

I have never in the past used an anti seize/never seize product on spark plugs. It sounds like a good idea for aluminum heads.
What specific anti/never seize product did you use for the spark plugs? I think products with copper should not be used but if others have other opinions/experience I would like to hear about it. My father in law had an aluminum boat which had a copper penny literally eat its way thru the hull. I admit that he was using the boat in salt water but the more dissimilar metals used the more likelihood there is of galvanic action.
I found one Permatex product part#H133. It looked like there was no copper in it i.e. it looked like aluminum only but the parts counter guy looked up its specs and it said it contains copper.

[Ozark Lee]

I just buy the little packages that are at the checkout stand at my local Advance Auto Parts. I found a package in my garage and it is made by some company called AGS but it has no reference on the package as to what is actually in it. It seems more like a graphite paste.

...Lee

[mindshadow]

I'm getting ready to tackle this job and I have a few questions. First, how do I know if the water pump needs to be changed? I'm at 123K miles so I'm not sure if that's too early or what. Are there any signs that it needs to be changed, and what are the negative consequences for failing to change it (or waiting to change it until the next t-belt change)?

Also I'm looking at FCP's site and I'm not sure which kit I should get. They range from $130 to $550.

http://www.fcpgroton.com/category-exec/ ... by_year/48

I have a '98 V70 XC, if that helps.