924Board.org

[The Fife]

I'm having a little trouble using it because there's not a lot of room in there. I've already read http://www.arnnworx.com/ and http://www.blaszakprecision.com/Belts.html and am following directions on Clark's Garage. Any advice on where to position the thing so that the needle won't hit the post the belt guide bolts into? My readings seem to vary from 30 to 50 lbs, mostly around the 40 area (40 is where it should be, right?). The spring tensioner wasn't enough to tension the new belt I have so I had to pry it tighter. There's not a lot of room to make it any tighter, it's near the end of how far it can go.

It looks like the car might finally run this weekend. I need to put the balance shaft belt on and tighten, then the fuel rail/new injector seals and airbox. I can hear air running through the engine when I turn it - sounds like I'm getting close!

[Paul]

No matter how sure you are that you have the belts on correctly, remove the plugs, and rotate the engine by hand for at least 2 full revolutions, before even thinking about starting it....

[The Fife]

The plugs are still out I've been turning the engine over a lot this afternoon. At first I had the wrong side of the belts tight - it was tight over by the water pump and spring tensioner. I started turning the crank and immediately noticed that the camshaft wasn't moving! Reread the directions from Clark's Garage and got it right the second time. Since then I've been turning it a lot - trying to pry the spring tensioner a little more, turning it 2 revolutions clockwise and then back ~ 1.5 or 2 teeth to take the measurement. I'm assuming you're supposed to measure on the idle roller/spring tensioner side. This isn't very easy to do and the tension readings I get seem to be a little low. Both marks still line up almost dead on though. When the mark on the camshaft is at TDC the mark on the flywheel is just the slightest bit different from where it was when the flywheel lock was in.

I'm pretty sure this is where the PO went wrong. That and the fact that he had the camshaft sprocket on the crankshaft on backwards (lip towards rear instead of front). The belt can look tight like it did the first time I had it on but the other side is still loose. He didn't use any tensioning tools at all for doing either belt, and somehow managed to get the flywheel bolt off without using a lock. I have no idea how he pulled that one off.

edit: I seem to be getting more consistent readings when I measure between the sping tensioner and the idle roller. Is this the same spot that others use? It seems like part of the problem earlier was that I was moving the needle while getting the tool away from the belt too. Right now readings average around 40lbs (when I don't do anything like twist the belt a little while measuring). When the crank is at TDC, the camshaft timing is .2-.25 teeth off. Looking good here? Sorry for all these questions - I want to make sure everything comes out right because I've already seen what happens when something is messed up!

[Sleykin]

Sounds like you have it about right ... now ya know what I meant when I said the krikit is a bit fiddly
_________________
Glenn Neff
Medford, OR
87' 924S

[The Fife]

Ok, great. Time for a new question though. What should the bolts or studs on the balance shaft sprockets be torqued to? I can't find any reference to this anywhere.

The list of things to do is getting pretty small
- new injector seals
- Put balance shaft sprockets, belt on and tension
- Put the fuel rail back on
- Fill with coolant
- Put the airbox back on

The pin wrench isn't in yet. Something tells me I can't just grab the balance shaft gear while wearing leather gloves and hold on while tightening the bolt so it looks like I'll have to wait until the tool comes in. The bolts weren't on tight to begin with, but the PO didn't have the tool either. I'd hate to put it all back together and have something bad happen because the gear wasn't on tight... better wait this one out. But I can at least take care of the other stuff today and run the car this next week.