2002 V70XC Exhaust Cam Gear question

[jasonmartinau]

The question here is with the exhaust cam gear on my 2002 v70xc. This gear has a VVT hub on it, which as far as I can tell is little more than an oil-filled chamber with a spring which causes the valve timing to change during application/removal of engine acceleration?

There is a T55 torx-head bolt holding this pulley onto the camshaft and removing this bolt was near impossible. I couldn't get my 1/2" breaker bar in there with the 3/8" adapter (required for my 3/8" T55 bit) but I eventually got it off with a 3/8" breaker and a long cheater. Eventually = hours. I was afraid of breaking my camshaft it was holding on so tight. Anyway, once it did get loose the gear came right off.

So here's the part that's got me confused. It appears there is no mechanism holding this gear to a particular angular position other than the high torque of this bolt holding it against the camshaft? There don't appear to be any rigid structures keeping them in time. Is this the case? Is this why the bolt has to be so tight? It seems odd that there is no keying mechanism between the two. Have I got this right or am I missing something?

[jimmy57]

You have encountered the new way of doing things. Few engines have keyed cam gears to cams in the last 15 years. They use a locking tool for cams, locking pin or timing mark for crank and then the belt gear or chain gear is tightened AFTER belt/chain being tensioned. This gives the most accurate timing of cam to crank.
Now that you have these apart you will need a cam locking tool. Search on here, there are instructions on how this is done.

[jasonmartinau]

No worries mate. There is no way. no. way. I could have gotten that bolt off without this tool! Got the one that locks onto the rear of the cams and it worked great. The service manual instructions are a little goofy in terms of reinstallation but I found a video on the procedure that seems legit:




J