Timing Belt Cock up; please help! - Saxperience

christoph · 15th May 2012, 13:55

The past couple of days i've been stripping down my little 99 1.1 because it blew its headgasket. I've done everything perfectly fine but i thought i should do the cambelt whilst i was there which is where i think i've managed to fuck it up completely. Basically i had everything at TDC marked up the belt and put it on no problem, tensioned it using a bar like it says in the haynes. But went to turn it over by hand and it squeaked, so i thought it was slightly too tight, so i released the tensioner a tad then done it back up. Went to turn it over by hand once more, but seems what i thought was a little movement in the tensioner turned out to be rather significant, as the belt slipped slightly

now the front face is limb where as round the water pump area its taught. Is there anyway i can align everything up again? Because im am only guessing here if i take the belt off again, the cam wont line up properly with the bottom sprocket. :/

jasonmayall · 15th May 2012, 14:15

If you take the belt off, put the timing pins back in (i used drill bits) and put the belt back on. To even out the tention, i heard a trick of losening the cam pulley and crank pulley with the pins still in, and then re-tighten... Hope this makes sense?

Honeybadger · 15th May 2012, 14:15

You should be able to take the belt off the redo the timing with the timing holes, theres one on the cam pulley and one that locks the fly wheel.

christoph · 15th May 2012, 14:25

Right so this might seem silly, but i am only 19 this is my first car so this is all new to me. Does the cam sprocket no have to be in time with the bottom crankshaft sprocket? This is where i thought my issue was :/

Honeybadger · 15th May 2012, 15:37

Yea it does while its running, but wont do any harm while the belt's off.

christoph · 15th May 2012, 15:48

So i can just turn the cam and crank sprokets separately until i can put the bolt through each one correct?

jasonmayall · 15th May 2012, 15:53

yep, its that simple

christoph · 15th May 2012, 16:07

Really? Seems a bit too simple haha thought it would be a major jobby. You done it yourself before?

xxo0pko0xx · 15th May 2012, 16:07

just dont turn the engine on whilst your doing it!!

christoph · 15th May 2012, 16:10

I got that bit

Just another thing, with the flywheel hole, is there only one hole it can go through?

jasonmayall · 15th May 2012, 16:14

yeah, i thought the same when i did mine, but it really is that easy!
theres only the 1 hole where which locks the flywheel into place, you'll know when its in though

christoph · 15th May 2012, 16:17

Awsome. I was just worried there were more than one hole so i would put it back in the wrong one. Thanks for the help!

christoph · 15th May 2012, 16:18

ARH GREAT! Its just started pissing down with rain ha :@

jasonmayall · 15th May 2012, 17:00

Haha, Just whack a coat on and crack on with it... rain never hurt anyone!

Honeybadger · 15th May 2012, 17:19

Been there... I always use an old fishing umbrella.

christoph · 16th May 2012, 17:20

Right i braved the weather with little success. Can someone tell me what i seem to be doing wrong. Ive taken all the plugs out (something to do with compression i believe?) Taken off the old/new belt. Went to turn the crank shaft sprocket but it seems its hitting on something. So i turned the cam sprocket a tad, then the crank shaft one moved to TDC (put a screw driver in the plug whole to check when the piston was all the way up correct?) But then the cam sprocket did the same thing. So i cant seem to align the pair up without them, seemingly, hitting on something or it feels like there compressing so i can't turn them. Any ideas? Very frustrating as i spent a good hour out in the rain, which then turned to hail with no success!