[slickfast]

Hey all,

Wanted to post this in a more visible place, since I haven't found anything on it. It's a major question about the timing belt job on my ALH Jetta.

I was locking everything up (all the locks are in right now), and found something that worried me. I set the cams to horizontal, turned the crank to TDC, tried to put the cam lock tool in... and it wouldn't go in. Instead, the cam lock goes in when the mark on the flywheel is a good 3/8" forward of the mark on the casing. Is this normal? The ignition pump pin goes in just fine. I'm afraid to take the timing belt off with it like this. The confusing part about this is that I got 45 mpg on the way back from the guy's house with it, so I don't think the timing belt jumped a tooth. What's going on here? All the locks are in right now, it just doesn't show TDC on the flywheel.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

No, it just means that the belt has stretched and timing had drifted. Set everything so that the locks are in place and since you said all the locks are in right now, you should be fine with the flywheel at TDC.

 

[slickfast]

No, it just means that the belt has stretched and timing had drifted. Set everything so that the locks are in place and since you said all the locks are in right now, you should be fine with the flywheel at TDC.

Ok, so after I take off the belt should I reset the flywheel to the TDC mark? Glad I'm in here though... the belt definitely doesn't feel very tight.

 

[grizzly]

Make sure the flywheel TDC mark is correct and the injection pump pin is right on. If it's wrong the engine could be 180 degrees out. Turn the cam until it's horizontal again and the first 2 lobes are pointing up and there's no doubt you're at TDC.

 

[gt-four rc]

sometime it is just dirty and you cant see the mark, try with a mirror gl

 

[k333nns]

Chinese timing belt kits

Hi does anybody know if these kits are any good

 

[YMZ]

Hi does anybody know if these kits are any good

China is a very big country, and I'm sure that somewhere in that vast land you can find a high-quality timing belt kit.

However, the Chinese-manufactured ones that have been sold by some vendors in the U.S. have an absolutely terrible reputation.

I'd stay with European vendors who sell parts manufactured by Ina, ContiTech, etc.

Yuri

 

[Seatman]

Hi does anybody know if these kits are any good

Get a gates kit bud, it's not worth the hassle if it goes wrong.

 

[slickfast]

I got my kit from metalmanparts.com, and after installing it I wholeheartedly recommend getting your kit there (only 280 shipped for everything you really need). ALL pieces of the kit were very high quality (conti belts, litens tensioner, graf metal impeller pump, replacement bolts for everything, non stretch bolts for the injector pump, GOOD stuff). I've already ordered twice from him and he always ships extremely quickly. He also helped me out via email for some things I had questions on. Awesome, awesome vendor.:bowdown

For the dude wondering about the chinese belt kit, PLEASE consider the following: the one place on your entire car that you don't want to cheap out on is the timing belt kit. It literally holds your engine in running condition. If ONE of the pieces in that kit fails, the likelihood that your valves get bent and your pistons get scored is higher. For $280 shipped, it's piece of mind that's worth the money (280 bucks isn't that much, either)

 

[slickfast]

Btw I had a HUGE scare today, though after thinking about it and what it means I'm starting to feel better. Okay, so I finished up the timing belt today... got everything together, bolted up, clamped on, whatever. Turned the crank by hand for a couple revolutions. No binding. It was a little tough sometimes but I'm pretty sure it was the compression cycles of the cylinders (I wouldn't be able to crank through if the the valves hit, right?). Cam lock tool went right in when I set the flywheel to TDC (and injection lock pin went in, though it took a little shoving). Good to go.

After getting everything all patched up, filling it up with new coolant, I was ready to start her up. Gave it a crank with my gf and dad looking at the engine under the hood. SPARKS immediately flew from the starter area (the engine did turn over several times, however). I wanted to make sure they were looking at the right thing, so I checked while my gf started it and it did indeed look like the starter. After very close inspection it looks like the smoke residue (there was smoke, we had a fire extinguisher ready for the second attempt) is surrounding an extremely oxidized nut that looks like it connects the positive battery lead to the starter. Is this the source of the spark? I'm just freaked out because it's never sparked before and I just did my first timing belt job so I'm terrified of messing it up. Please someone tell me the two aren't related and the timing/valves are ok.

 

[Seatman]

I recommended gates because he's in the UK but as for your car, it sounds like you have a bad connection, the main live from the battery goes etraight to that connection you're looking at, take off the earth on the battery then take that connection off the starter and give it a clean then tighten it up, reconnect the earth and try again.

 

[slickfast]

I recommended gates because he's in the UK but as for your car, it sounds like you have a bad connection, the main live from the battery goes etraight to that connection you're looking at, take off the earth on the battery then take that connection off the starter and give it a clean then tighten it up, reconnect the earth and try again.

Whoops, no kiddin. That's what I'm hoping it is... I'm just freaked out and afraid that I screwed something up with the TB. We'll see today when I put a new bolt on there.

 

[Tomspassat]

You can always remove the glow plugs to eliminate the compression of the engine. Did you finally verify TDC on the flywheel? If the tools went in OK and timing was pretty close to where it was during belt removal, it should be OK.

Sparks? 2nd, clean it up!

 

[slickfast]

You can always remove the glow plugs to eliminate the compression of the engine. Did you finally verify TDC on the flywheel? If the tools went in OK and timing was pretty close to where it was during belt removal, it should be OK.

Sparks? 2nd, clean it up!

Yeah, I did that last night and was able to turn it over pretty smoothly. That was after I tried starting it though, so any damage would have been done at that point. I don't think think it was the valves because I turned it over by hand earlier... I'm just very critical of myself and would assume that I did something wrong WAY before thinking a starter would just coincidentally start arcing.

 

[slickfast]

To conclude this thread, I had to go get a new Bosch starter yesterday. And since I didn't fill up the fuel filter (whoops), it only ran for about 10 seconds. Time to bleed the lines!