Timing Belt Parts

[SoTxVx]

Bart,

Take a close look at the crankshaft pulley. There should be a dot or a line that you will want to line up with the reference mark on the cover. If not, it will be the keyway on the crank lining up with the mark on the cover. Turn over the engine by hand until you get both cam pulleys lined up with their reference marks on the heads and I bet the crank keyway or pulley mark lines up with a mark on the front cover.

Install the new belt and make sure these marks all line up. It is a pain the arse sometimes to get it perfect, but nothing less than perfect is acceptable.

John

[nfpgasmask]

Y E S

I 99.99% sure I got it! Once you take off the timing belt, the upper pulleys spring to the 12 o'clock position, like the Aussie chap talks about in the 2nd above video. At first this TOTALLY freaked me out, because the instructional video for changing the timing belt MAKES NO MENTION of this happening. They gloss over so many small details in that video, it is almost not worth watching because it will confuse the hell outta you if you have never done this before.

So at this point, I have the water pump changed, the tensioner and the idle pulley all swapped out, and the new belt is in place. Now, all I really have to do is put everything back together and make sure I get my coolant and everything filled up and correct.

So, I am basically "done" changing the belt and associated parts. I just need to button her back up, and I might wait until tomorrow after work (I'm tired). Either way, I am going to have a really nice write up with loads of photos when I am done. I just hope everything works right and my coolant leak STOPS. Otherwise I will be going back in and I don't want to do that!

More soon.

Bart

[SoTxVx]

Bart,

If you want to make sure you got it right ...

Turn over the engine by hand. Make sure the mark line up after turning it over. If that is good. Put your harmonic balancer on and just snug it up and start the engine. Make sure it sounds and revs okay. Don't go overboard and make sure you dont get any loose clothing or hair caught up in the moving parts. This will not hurt your engine and can save you a lot of headache if you didn't get it just right. You know how hard it was to get to where you are now. It would be a pain to have to do it all over again.

John

[nfpgasmask]

Turn over the engine by hand. Make sure the mark line up after turning it over.

Yes, I rotated the engine by hand 3 times and the hash marks lined up correctly every time so I think I am good.

Put your harmonic balancer on and just snug it up and start the engine.

What is a harmonic balancer? No idea what you are talking about??

At this point things are getting put back together. Worst case scenario my timing is off and I get CEL and have to go back in. But, I am feeling pretty good about my timing at this point.

What I don't like however, is how the damn manual is so freakin' vague. Finding the torque specs for certain things is a MAJOR pain. I might have to call Merlin tomorrow and see if I can talk to someone who can tell me torque specs for certain parts.

Right now I am replacing the Serpentine Belt Tensioner and pulley. There is 1 bolt holding the top part of the tensioner assembly to the housing. There is also a large allen bolt in the center of the tensioner assembly that I had to remove and for the life of me I cannot find the right torque specs for these bolts. Furthermore, what is the correct torque for the tensioner pulley itself? This is where I have stopped for the night.

But I am getting there and I should hopefully be done tomorrow after work or Tuesday at the latest.

Bart

PS - A friend of mine told me I should probably change my "heater hoses" as well. I have no idea what he is talking about. Anyone??

[SoTxVx]

The harmonic balancer is the big round piece of metal that was on the end of the crankshaft. It had the large bolt going through it to the crankshaft end that you probably had fun getting loose. It had the lower sepentine belt pulley bolted to it. It had to come off before you get the lower cover off to completely expose the belt.

If you feel real good about the timing then you may not want to start the engine before reassembly. I just know that the first one I did, I ended up doing twice because I got the crank pulley one tooth off and had to tear it all back down. Thank goodness it was on a 2.6L older trooper that was not as involved as the 3.2L and 3.5L motors are. And the second time you do it, it goes faster after you stop cussing.

I don't believe there are any heater hoses that are easy to replace at the same time as the timing belt.

John

[nfpgasmask]

Well, like I said, EVERYTHING lines up. So, I am pretty confident, and I am not worried about the timing at this point. But then again, I have never done this before so who knows.

I do however have the following questions:

1) Once everything is back together, do I just fill the radiator with coolant through the fill cap on the top? I have 2.5 gallons of coolant ready.

2) Torque specs, how important are they? I am stuck on the serpentine belt tensioner assembly. To remove the tensioner assembly, you have to remove a single bolt in the upper corner of the assembly. You also have to remove a large allen bolt from the center of the tensioner assembly. This will allow you to remove the assembly, however I cannot find the torque specs for these parts.

3) Should my timing belt be slightly off, what will happen when I crank the engine over for the first time? Will I simply get a rough running engine and a CEL? Will is just stall out? What should I be prepared for if I effed up somewhere? I won't do any serious engine damage, will I?

Once I figure all this out, I will be able to finish.

Thanks - Bart

[SoTxVx]

Bart,

If you still have time and feel uncomfortable about the radiator condition... Take it to a radiator shop. They will pull the tanks and will rod out the core cleaning all of the cooling tubes. When you put it back together, just fill the radiator and when the engine gets up to temperature, the thermostat will open and you will need to top it off again. Should cost no more than ~$100 (at least in this part of the country). If you don't have time, it will only cost you another $40-$70 to have the shop take it out and do the work later on.

If you can't find the torque specs, crank it down. you may want to use a small amount of loctite blue. Here is a rough guide. Note that fine threaded bolts withstand higher torque values than rough threads.

http://dodgeram.org/tech/specs/bolts/M_bolts.html

There is some debate if the engine is an interference of non-interference but searching on the subject, Tone (RIP) posted that our engine is a non interference engine. That's good enough for me. You should not have any valve to piston contact even if the timing is off.

You might want to read this post and give a second thought to starting up the engine before you get it all back together. It can't hurt and may save you an additional teardown to get it right.

http://www.vehicross.info/forums/showthread.php?t=8070

John