Ancillary drive belt replacement

[HarryM1BYT]

Thanks Kevin,

I have it planned as a two man job for tomorrow evening. I have a few 24mm spanners to work with and if necessary I could cut and could perhaps weld an old one to make it a better fit/ increase the leverage.

[FrenchMike]

Hi all,

Here is my home made spanner:



thickness 12 millimeters max , 2 feet long

Mike

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by FrenchMike

Hi all,

Here is my home made spanner:



thickness 12 millimeters , 2 feets long

Mike

Which is exactly what I ended up with

I cut (angle grinder) mine from an old imperial socket which was a good enough fit. I also found that the flat strip needed a dog leg in it, to clear a bracket. Mike didn't make it clear, so I will - the overall thickness of the socket plus the 2 foot long steel strip must be no more than 12mm to fit between bolt head and the inner wing. Most ring spanners are thicker than this.

There were signs (marks on the tensioner bolt head) suggesting the belt might have been changed in the past (90K +). The old ancillary belt looked fine, but the a/c / alternator belt was well past it. Both go in my boot as emergency spares.

It took us a leisurly 3 hours including scratching around for the socket and steel strip to make the spanner. We found it easier to make the crank pulley the final pulley around which to fit it. No blood and no stitches

PCV, EGR and MAF inspection/service are next on my 'to do list'.

[FrenchMike]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

Which is exactly what I ended up with

I cut (angle grinder) mine from an old imperial socket which was a good enough fit. I also found that the flat strip needed a dog leg in it, to clear a bracket. Mike didn't make it clear, so I will - the overall thickness of the socket plus the 2 foot long steel strip must be no more than 12mm to fit between bolt head and the inner wing. Most ring spanners are thicker than this.

There were signs (marks on the tensioner bolt head) suggesting the belt might have been changed in the past (90K +). The old ancillary belt looked fine, but the a/c / alternator belt was well past it. Both go in my boot as emergency spares.

It took us a leisurly 3 hours including scratching around for the socket and steel strip to make the spanner. We found it easier to make the crank pulley the final pulley around which to fit it. No blood and no stitches

PCV, EGR and MAF inspection/service are next on my 'to do list'.

OK Harry,

Well done,i have corrected my post.

Cheers

Mike

[Kevlunn]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

Which is exactly what I ended up with

I cut (angle grinder) mine from an old imperial socket which was a good enough fit. I also found that the flat strip needed a dog leg in it, to clear a bracket. Mike didn't make it clear, so I will - the overall thickness of the socket plus the 2 foot long steel strip must be no more than 12mm to fit between bolt head and the inner wing. Most ring spanners are thicker than this.

There were signs (marks on the tensioner bolt head) suggesting the belt might have been changed in the past (90K +). The old ancillary belt looked fine, but the a/c / alternator belt was well past it. Both go in my boot as emergency spares.

It took us a leisurly 3 hours including scratching around for the socket and steel strip to make the spanner. We found it easier to make the crank pulley the final pulley around which to fit it. No blood and no stitches

PCV, EGR and MAF inspection/service are next on my 'to do list'.

It's interesting that everyone (like me) found that the main ancillary belt still appeared to be in good nick - but the air-con belt was badly cracked. I wonder if the aircon compressor pulley becomes very cold, via the air-con system, causing the rubber compound to harden and become brittle? I cannot think why that particular belt should deteriorate so much faster than the larger belt.

When I was in the Fleet Air Arm I served for several years on HMS Eagle. During that period I worked for a while in the 'LOX bay' (liquid oxygen). Leaking lox would drop down to floor level and hence the temperature at floor level was very low. As a consequence the rubber soles of the Navy issue boots would harden and crack, rendering the boots useless after just a few weeks.

I can't think of any other reason as to why this particular belt should always be in such a poor condition at renewal.

[HarryM1BYT]

Originally Posted by Kevlunn

It's interesting that everyone (like me) found that the main ancillary belt still appeared to be in good nick - but the air-con belt was badly cracked. I wonder if the aircon compressor pulley becomes very cold, via the air-con system, causing the rubber compound to harden and become brittle? I cannot think why that particular belt should deteriorate so much faster than the larger belt.

My own thoughts on this were that it is visible from the top and therefore more likely to have been replaced at a service. Another possibilty is that the a/c belt is shorter and therefore the belt will do more complete revolutions in a set mileage than the longer one.

Thinking about the job last night, it was a bit of a faff. I had to run it up the ramps to get the engine under cover off, because the only way to get it on axle stands is to put the stands under the front sub frame, which is hidden under the cover. Once on the ramps, it was too high to lift it further with my big garage jack, so it had to be run off the ramps, jacked up, put on the stands to get the OSF wheel off - then the whole process done in reverse once the belts were done. It was the manouvering which took up most of the time, the belts were off and back on within an hour so.

[Kevlunn]

Originally Posted by HarryM1BYT

My own thoughts on this were that it is visible from the top and therefore more likely to have been replaced at a service. Another possibilty is that the a/c belt is shorter and therefore the belt will do more complete revolutions in a set mileage than the longer one.

Thinking about the job last night, it was a bit of a faff. I had to run it up the ramps to get the engine under cover off, because the only way to get it on axle stands is to put the stands under the front sub frame, which is hidden under the cover. Once on the ramps, it was too high to lift it further with my big garage jack, so it had to be run off the ramps, jacked up, put on the stands to get the OSF wheel off - then the whole process done in reverse once the belts were done. It was the manouvering which took up most of the time, the belts were off and back on within an hour so.

Glad you got it sorted Harry. Clearly changing the main belt is less of a problem if you have the proper tool instead of an open-ended spanner!

If I've still got the car in another 60k miles I'll make up a special spanner myself!

[HarryM1BYT]

I've now done the PVR and EGR. Rather than replace the filter I just checked it and gave the lot a good clean out with white spirit. It certainly didn't seem too bad at all and cleaned up quite nicely.

The EGR was very much in need of a clean out, but cleaned quite easily. I also scraped as much of the gunge as I could get to, out of the manifold.

mpg seems to be a little better and there has been a quite marked improvement in performance. I can now feel the surge as turbo kicks in, I really couldn't before. So well worth the effort.

I didn't get as far as investigating the MAF.

I noticed one curiosity following the belt change which I completely forgot to mention....

I started the engine after fitting the belts, just to check how it ran - before I had fitted the wing liner and reconnected the ABS plus pad wear sensor. This obviously threw up the faults in the upper matrix display of the instrument panel - but the odd part was that matrix display had developed a vertical line down the centre of it and a second one towards right hand edge. Where the lines were, the displayed text broke up and stepped down a single dot or pixel line.

Once the wing liner was back in place and all reconnected, the line down the centre repaired itself and then the line down the right hand edge of the display had 'repaired itself' when I fired it up this evening.

[Dazbag]

Originally Posted by ned78

On the CDT a 24mm spanner is difficult to fit in. I had to pull mine myself, and when it slipped, I cleaved a good inch and a half of skin from my thumb. So, note to self - wear rigger gloves in future.

I'm working on modifying the 24mm for the next time I need to do the job. Grinding back the offending area, and welding the opposite side to reinforce it seems the best step forward, but the arm needs to be bent too.

I have a 2000 1800, No problem doing mine. Blly pan is missing (i think they all are) Short length of 2"batten to push the pump tensioner down and the same to push the alternator one up. Don't have to undoo anything.

[pipe n slippers]

daft question perhaps, but which way do you pull the tensioner as i can't shift mine, it did go pop though when i removed the belt originally..........alternator woes