98 v70 na timing belt replace - question

[98v70dad]

Is the lower timing belt cover absolutely essential? Mine broke when I was trying to get it out. (I couldn've sworn I was supposed to get it out...) I can still screw it on, so it's not broken around the screws, but it's not one piece. What happens if I put everything back together like this? I couldn't get it off for the life of me. (And I can't imagine trying to get one on!)

This is because the Lower TB cover needs to be installed with the Water Pump.
I mentioned that in the Timing Belt DIY.

Now, if you don't want to remove the WP to install the Lower TB cover, then I guess you can trim a bit around where it meets the WP to allow it to be installed. I maybe wrong though.

I am certainly not as knowledgeable as the people here at MVS but I had the water pump out and still couldn't get the Lower TB cover in or out without breaking it. I've been working on cars since the seventies and almost never can't figure out something. This was an exception. I would challenge anyone to do it successfully.

The problem is clearing the intake cam pulley. I think you could possibly clear the pulley by trimming the the cover near that interference. A brand new part may go in without breaking. The way I was doing it was to drop the cover under the exhaust cam pulley and put the lower Edge behind the harmonic balancer on the crank. Then I would push the whole thing down as far as it would go and at the same time rotate it forward to slip under the intake cam pulley. A used part doesn't have enough flex to make this work. I couldn't come up with another method that even got me close. A new part may have enough flex..don't know. I gave up and marked the intake cam pulley and removed it. The cover goes right in with that off.

[98v70dad]

Double post. Sorry. The software kept inserting the word fools for folks. I changed it several times and the spell checker kept putting it back. Usually I'll let misspellings or typing errors go but that one was insulting and completely changed the meaning. If I was a good speller I would turn spell check off. My second post replaced the word folks withe "people"

[MrPc]

I broke my lower timing belt cover when I did this job too. You can see how I repaired it with aluminum bar stock and rivets in this post in an older thread about broken lower timing belt covers:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51459&p=260895#p260895

It's been there for over three years and 15k miles, and doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon.

Paul

[98v70dad]

I broke my lower timing belt cover when I did this job too. You can see how I repaired it with aluminum bar stock and rivets in this post in an older thread about broken lower timing belt covers:

https://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=51459&p=260895#p260895

It's been there for over three years and 15k miles, and doesn't look like it's going anywhere soon.

Paul

That's what I originally wanted to do. Mine broke at the skinny vertical piece between the forward side of the water pump and the TB tensioner pulley. There was no clearance for a repair like that. Yours is a great repair though. I've done that with great success on other plastic parts when there is room.