240 General: H Reg 240, Project Thread

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Suggest keep an eye out on sales sections for crank locking tool, I bought one on here a few months ago.

Shouldn't need to do my belt for a few years, but bought it as just in case, it was worth the £20

Alternatively, as and when you near to doing the job, might find a local forum user who has one that you could 'borrow'

Cheers
Steve

The OP’s motor car is a manual Steve, so there is no real need for the crank holding device - just use the handbrake. If that doesn’t work it is easy to wedge a pry bar in the flywheel.

[Bob 1967]

The factory belts have White Lines on them, they correspond to the marks on each of the three pulley wheels.
(they can come off with grubby hands, so careful!)
Once they are lined up correctly there should be no issue.
The only pulley that moved while I installed mine was the drive for the Distributor/Fuel Pump. But it wasn't a problem, as the marks were easily lined up.
When the camshaft is at TDC it is under no pressure to rotate by itself.
It would need an external force to rotate it.
Since the belt tensioner is locked in the off position, there will be sufficient slack to remove the belt and replace it with a new one without any movement of the pulleys.

Regarding the lines.
I have seen it written to rotate the engine manually to see if they(white lines) still line up(after assembly).
To put it simply, they won't, due to the number of teeth and diameter of each pulley.
Just something to be aware of.
There are many here who have done this and all are ready to assist and answer any questions (except any relating to meaning of life ).

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Bob 1967

The factory belts have White Lines on them, they correspond to the marks on each of the three pulley wheels.
(they can come off with grubby hands, so careful!)
Once they are lined up correctly there should be no issue.
The only pulley that moved while I installed mine was the drive for the Distributor/Fuel Pump. But it wasn't a problem, as the marks were easily lined up.
When the camshaft is at TDC it is under no pressure to rotate by itself.
It would need an external force to rotate it.
Since the belt tensioner is locked in the off position, there will be sufficient slack to remove the belt and replace it with a new one without any movement of the pulleys.

Regarding the lines.
I have seen it written to rotate the engine manually to see if they(white lines) still line up(after assembly).
To put it simply, they won't, due to the number of teeth and diameter of each pulley.
Just something to be aware of.
There are many here who have done this and all are ready to assist and answer any questions (except any relating to meaning of life ).

The Gates belt I used last had white marker lines on it as well Bob, indeed all the after market ones I have used have had white lines that make the job really easy. I rather suspected they all come out of the same factory somewhere, but the ones in the Volvo boxes sell for much more (I don't know that for sure, but it is what I think **).

You are right that as soon as the engine is rotated the lines on the belt won't line up again (well, not for very many revolutions until all the stars align again). What is worth doing (in my opinion) though is painting some reference marks on the pulleys and casing, these will align every two turns of the crank which is a good check that everything is in line after releasing the tensioner. This is particularly useful for the auxiliary shaft where Mr Volvo's timing mark on the back of the casing is really difficult to see (I use an old handlebar mirror from a motorcycle to find it the first time, then mark it with paint).

42 is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything Bob.



**: I generally cynical about paying extra to buy 'genuine Volvo' (or 'genuine any other car manufacturer' parts) for this reason. An anecdote (although a true one) if I may: about a year ago the back up battery on the alarm siren for my Porsche Boxster started to fail so if the car was left for a while there would be an infrequent but regular 'chirp', which sounded like a budgie was living in the front compartment. I took the siren off and copied down the part number. I found the genuine Porsche part cost around £200, but the identical VAG one was less than £30. I ordered the VAG one of course - it was identical in every way (without a doubt came out of the same factory but went into a VAG box instead of a Porsche one). The budgie is living elsewhere now. I think this happens often - Mr Volvo isn't in the business of manufacturing common user parts like bearings, seals, belts, filters, fasteners... they are brought in from other suppliers whom sell them to lots of other manufacturers and Joe Public. There are many folk that disagree with me, but I see no point wasting money on a Volvo box for common user items. Just the ramblings of a middle aged man with a beard - Bobwalkin time now .

[Levonsrealm]

Found a great video that should help you.

This combined with the many threads on here on how to change a cambelt should fill in any knowledge that is missing.

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APXKlGO1xeE[/YOUTUBE]

I've found this video great. There are some differences with this car they are working on and (possibly) your own. For instance, my alternator is on the exhaust manifold side and not the intake side. Also, I don't have an AC Compressor and personally do not know many that do.

What the person doesn't show is that they take the intermediate pulley off with a buzz gun/ ratchet gun. They do this because they do not have the tool to hold the intermediate pulley/ cam pulley.

I am actually performing these tasks myself on my car this week, including installing a crank, cam and auxillary/intermediate seals.

Just a few tips. There are two types of cam belts. Anything pre '93 is a trapezoidal/ square tooth cam belt. post '93 round tooth. Be sure to check what is on yours before replacing. It is okay to assume that because your car is pre '93 it will have a square tooth but we simply do not know. In the cars 30+ year long history it may have had a replacement post '93 b2xx engine installed and there is no record of it in the car history.
The Volvo P/N for the pre '93 cam belt i believe off the top of my head is a P/N 271713.

You can purchase a Crank shaft locking tool.
The P/N is 9995284

The Cam/ intermediate Counterhold tool:
P/N 9995034.

The latter are very hard to come by. Luckily you can rent one. You can rent one from ClassicSwede for 65p plus £20 deposit.

A few tips that I have picked up researching this job (as I have never done one myself either).

1. If you can't procure a locking tool I did see a video of someone remove the spark plugs, attach a socket and breaker bar to the crank pulley. Jam the bar into the floor and just turn the engine over by key to loosen the crank. Good in a pinch.

2. you can put a pry bar/ crow bar on the intermediate/ crank pulley and push the cambelt tensioner enough to get a pin in. I just had a thought, perhaps you can use a G-clamp to contract the tensioner enough to get a pin in, but I would have to check this as I am not sure of available space.

3. If the lines do not match up when putting the timing belt on then just turn the timing belt 180° and they should line up then.

There are plenty of videos and thread guides on how to perform the task. What I found was there is not a lot of information on what may go wrong. I think I will start a thread to pose the question. Also, I would not want to derail your entire thread into a 'cambelt horror story' thread .

Best of luck!

[loki_the_glt]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Suggest keep an eye out on sales sections for crank locking tool, I bought one on here a few months ago.

Shouldn't need to do my belt for a few years, but bought it as just in case, it was worth the £20

Alternatively, as and when you near to doing the job, might find a local forum user who has one that you could 'borrow'

Cheers
Steve

I'm happy to lend out my crankshaft locking tool - borrower pays postage both ways and a donation to charity would be appreciated.

[Bob 1967]

There seems to be a lot of over complicating of a fairly simple task.
I didn't need any locking tools, these would only be needed in the case of major surgery. All that is being done is
Rotate engine to TDC
Remove Aux Belts(Alternator/Power steering)
Remove belt cover
Take pressure from tensioner pulley and lock with nut.
Remove belt
Replace belt(line up marks)
Release tensioner nut to tension belt and re tighten nut
And put everything back together.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Bob 1967

There seems to be a lot of over complicating of a fairly simple task.
I didn't need any locking tools, these would only be needed in the case of major surgery. All that is being done is
Rotate engine to TDC
Remove Aux Belts(Alternator/Power steering)
Remove belt cover
Take pressure from tensioner pulley and lock with nut.
Remove belt
Replace belt(line up marks)
Release tensioner nut to tension belt and re tighten nut
And put everything back together.

Exactly Bob, people are making a trivial job sound difficult. There is no need for special tools, not even if the tensioner and seals need changing (they don’t often leak).
Just get on with it chaps, this really isn’t hard.

[hreg240]

Good morning all,

First of all, apologies for my absence this weekend just past! 'Twas rather more eventful than I anticipated (but thankfully, not from a Volvo point of view).

Thank you all very much for the advice, pointers, and offers of loaning tools! I am most, truly, grateful. As Alan (Othen) and I discussed a few pages back in this thread, as the cambelt was only done 20,000 miles ago, it is not of huge concern right now. That being said, it is imminent on my 'to-do' list - perhaps I shall do it come May time, before the summer truly begins.

As an update to the project, this weekend, I:

• Completed an oil and filter change, barring the fuel filter as the holder has snapped and the p/o decided to zip tie it in place. I didn't have a zip tie to replace on the new filter, so have left it until I have chance to go to a factor's and purchase some.

• Gave a visual inspection to the underside of the car. I am happy with the condition and structural rigidity. It is clear that the welding work carried out by Volvo in years' past has been done to a high standard.

• Started toying around with the CR-702 radio. I got it to play tapes, however the auto-reverse is failing to engage, which results in chewing the tapes. I ended up completely removing the deck from the car and have started dismantling indoors. I will look to fix this one, before deciding whether or not I want to replace with an aftermarket unit - I quite like the OEM unit.

Unfortunately, partly due to the weather, I didn't have time to remove the rear bumper and assess the rust hole / cover in hammerite. I will look to do this either one evening this week, or at the weekend (weather permitting).

The next jobs to do (which shall spread across a few weekends) are:

• Replace all of the fuses with new ones I have bought. I will clean each contact at the same time. Preventative maintenance at its finest.

• Inspect and measure up the rust hole ready for cutting and welding (whilst applying some hammerite in the interim).

• Apply silicone spray to the aux belts to see if that stops my screeching on cold-start. The screech goes away just after engine gets to temp.

• Check the spark plugs and decide if I need new ones, or to clean up the current ones.

• Fit the new indicator stalk I got, to see if that fixes my main beam bother (which seems to have cured itself, but I wish not to poke the hornet's nest so-to-speak, so haven't thoroughly tested the issue since it last occurred).

• Start to investigate the water in my boot. I believe I know the culprit: Every time I open the boot after rainfall, a stream of water drops into the boot floor from the wiring loom in the top n/s corner. This loom looks to have some terrible botch jobs which I shall set about fixing. I know I am also going to need a new rubber/plastic casing for the loom as it currently does not sit flush with the two holes in the metalwork.

After that, my attention will turn to welding in the new panel. Then, back to the cambelt and fixing the (aux?) belt screech (if silicone spray / new aux belts doesn't fix it).

[BicycleBoy]

Apply silicone spray to the aux belts to see if that stops my screeching on cold-start. The screech goes away just after engine gets to temp

The screeching might stop, but the belts will slip even more.
Solution would be to tighten the alternator pulley (slacken mount bolt first).

Also, no silicone in your garage if you ever want to paint anything.

[hreg240]

Originally Posted by BicycleBoy

The screeching might stop, but the belts will slip even more.
Solution would be to tighten the alternator pulley (slacken mount bolt first).

Also, no silicone in your garage if you ever want to paint anything.

Thanks for the tip BB,

Would you, by chance, have a picture (or link) of the pulley mount bolt location? From what I see, the pulley is attached via a single bolt through the center of it.

With regards to the silicone in garage - my garage is currently occupied by my beetle, so no worries there.