This car is going to be the death of me. 94 855 timing belt

Post by **phat78ta** » 28 Jul 2014, 19:49

So, I commence the task of installing the timing belt on this headache, and I cannot for the life of me get it to go over the tensioner pulley. I have triple checked the belt part #, and it is correct.
This is as close to achieving my goals as I can get. Best pic I could get..

And this is the amount of slack I have between the pulleys.

The tensioner pulley body is as far down as it will go, and it is hitting a bolt for the water pump. I don't recall from my n/a car if this was the case, but I did that one 3 years ago.
What am I missing here? If I was really close, I would mess with the belt a bit, cuss and get it on there, as I had to do on my n/a car. I might try another belt from the pats store to see if FCP gave me a belt that was boxed wrong.
I can't wait to get this fixed so I can drive it off a cliff.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 28 Jul 2014, 19:53

What is the belt number? You may have an early style belt.

...Lee

Post by **phat78ta** » 28 Jul 2014, 19:59

026-0323
My engine # is 246494, which according to FCP makes it the correct belt.
Engine model is B5234T

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 28 Jul 2014, 20:21

That should be correct according to the cross reference. Are you sure it has cleared the casting mark below the crankshaft sprocket? That one is very hard to see and it will definitely mess things up.

...Lee

Post by **phat78ta** » 28 Jul 2014, 20:24

I believe so, but I will check again to be sure.

Post by **dosbricks** » 28 Jul 2014, 20:39

From the look of the photo, you might want to start by putting the top TB cover back on to check the V marks to see if one of the cams has moved a bit.

I have never routed a belt in the manner you are attempting. I have always done it the vs Bay 13 way of getting it completely routed down below, then hooking a bungee in the tensioner roller to apply upward pressure. Then pulling the belt as tight as possible up the right side, working it over the intake pulley, and maintaining it taught, finished up by working it onto the exhaust pulley so that all possible slack is on the left side before pulling the tensioner pin.

Post by **rspi** » 28 Jul 2014, 20:43

Are you sure you got the belt against the crank (past the dampener) on the bottom of it? Go to 3:20 on this video.

Post by **phat78ta** » 28 Jul 2014, 21:19

dosbricks wrote:From the look of the photo, you might want to start by putting the top CS cover back on to check the V marks to see if one of the cams has moved a bit.

I have never routed a belt in the manner you are attempting. I have always done it the vs Bay 13 way of getting it completely routed down below, then hooking a bungee in the tensioner roller to apply upward pressure. Then pulling the belt as tight as possible up the right side, working it over the intake pulley, and maintaining it taught, finished up by working it onto the exhaust pulley so that all possible slack is on the left side before pulling the tensioner pin.

I did notice the marks were off a bit, so I corrected that. I will try the bungee method tomorrow and hopefully that will lead me to success.

Post by **RussB** » 29 Jul 2014, 03:14

I just did my timing belt last week. It was the fourth 850 T-belt I've done. I had trouble getting the belt to sit proper on the crank pulley. There is an aluminum boss with a rubber donut on it. I rekon it's a guide or retainer for the t-belt. Well, the donut had worked loose and was stopping the belt from sitting on the crank pulley.

Get under there and feel the crank pulley & belt from underneath with your fingers. Make sure that the belt is sitting on the pulley

Post by **abscate** » 29 Jul 2014, 05:44

dosbricks wrote:From the look of the photo, you might want to start by putting the top TB cover back on to check the V marks to see if one of the cams has moved a bit.

I have never routed a belt in the manner you are attempting. I have always done it the vs Bay 13 way of getting it completely routed down below, then hooking a bungee in the tensioner roller to apply upward pressure. Then pulling the belt as tight as possible up the right side, working it over the intake pulley, and maintaining it taught, finished up by working it onto the exhaust pulley so that all possible slack is on the left side before pulling the tensioner pin.

I think what dosbricks methods does is ensure the the last pulley to be installed as the longest run of belt adjacent to it. Trying to put it on the tensioner last, you only have a few cm of belt to stretch so the applied force goes up proportionally inversely to the length of the piece of belt run.

The physical picture of what the belt tension is as a function of time during an engine revolution is pretty cool. There is variable torque from the motor on the crank, constant tension from the idler and tensioner, variable torque with rpm from the water pump, and two weird functions from the valve train.