Worst timing belt refresh 1999 Volvo s70-GLT

Post by **800artfreed** » 04 Jul 2023, 11:49

Background: Purchased 1999 S70-GLT with 60K miles about 3 years ago. At that time I refreshed the timing belt, tension pulley and idler pulley.
I did not change the water pump.
After the job was completed the belt ran at the edge of all of the pulleys. But it was OK.

Due to other repairs I discovered the water pump was leaking slightly. I decided to do the entire timing belt job again. This included belt, the water pump, tension pulley and idler at 93K miles

After completing the job the belt is positioned hanging over all of the lower pulleys and rubbing against the inner wall of the harmonic balancer pulley.

When I did the job this time, I pulled the harmonic balancer (HB). Previous TB jobs I did not remove the HB.Volvo has a bit of a strange design in that the pulley is not threaded only the crankshaft gear (C.S.G.) Thus when using the puller you are actually pulling the crankshaft gear off of the crankshaft. I did not need to fully remove the C.S.G. I used my electric 1/2" impact tool to drive the C.S.G. back on the crankshaft. I also used the impact tool when tightening the nut to complete the job. I accidentally had the Dewalt impact wrench at its most powerful setting (3) and I probably over torqued the nut onto the crankshaft. Could I have damaged the C.S.G.? Could the water pump be forcing the belt outward on the pulleys?

Please look at the photos attached. The photos of the 3 tension pulleys and idler pulleys are from left to right: original Volvo from the car, middle is the first set of replacements done at 60K and right is the very latest pulleys done at 90K with only a few minutes of run time. The replacements are all INA from FCP. The belts are Continental. As you can see the OEM belt was best positioned on the OEM pulleys and pump. The 1st replacement had the belt ridding on the edge. Now the belt is riding over the edge and rubbing on the Harmonic Balancer surface.

As always any advice is greatly appreciated.

Post by **wizechatmgr** » 04 Jul 2023, 14:40

Who made the replacement water pump?

Post by **800artfreed** » 04 Jul 2023, 14:58

HEPU through FCP

Post by **scot850** » 04 Jul 2023, 16:00

Hmm. Don't recommend Hepu, but that is what you have fitted now. Before getting too worked up on this can I make a couple of suggestions:

1) Can you find a way to measure the distance from the block to the rear flange on the pump pulley, and if you have your old pump(s) the same measurement. Are they all the same? Maybe the Hepu pump flange sits further out so the TB rides further out?

2) Looking at your 3 TB tensioners, it may be a trick of the positioning, but is the back mounting flange thicker on the Volvo tensioner than the INA ones? Just because INA were, or are the OE suppliers, it does not mean the parts are made exactly the same. Again, if the INA flanges are thinker, it will make the belt sit out further on the outer side of the pulleys.

If they are all the same, then I am at a loss. I had issues with an INA tensioner as I could not get it to torque up without locking. After 5 hours of that nonsense I swapped it for a Volvo one and it worked as it should the first time.

Neil.

Post by **800artfreed** » 04 Jul 2023, 19:49

Thanks for your replies. I am going to measure the pumps as you suggested. I am probably going to reinstall the old pump to see if it corrects the issue. That would bring me back to OEM pump, tensioner and idler. YouTube videos have suggested shimming the tensioner. I may try that on the both the idler and tensioner. To be honest I am pretty freaked out with this situation as I know I can't drive the car with the TB rubbing against the harmonic balancer. At least I can still drive my 1999 S70-T5. Ha Ha.

Post by **scot850** » 04 Jul 2023, 19:57

Check the tensioner bracket thicknesses as well. If the original has a thicker mounting bracket that may be the issue and not the pump.

Neil.

Post by **abscate** » 06 Jul 2023, 04:42

Was there a parts break on the tensioner in the P2 chassis? I know the rotation of the tensioner changes at a chassis number …

I think you have wrong parts

Post by **scot850** » 06 Jul 2023, 08:30

Am I missing something here? I thought we were talking about a 99 S70, where is the P2 coming into this?

Neil.

Post by **abscate** » 06 Jul 2023, 15:19

scot850 wrote: ↑06 Jul 2023, 08:30 Am I missing something here? I thought we were talking about a 99 S70, where is the P2 coming into this?

Neil.

From my heat fried Neurons, sorry about that

Post by **scot850** » 06 Jul 2023, 16:52

All is forgiven! I struggle to keep the right cars and I spend most of my time on this section/P80!

Not been as warm up here thankfully.

Neil.