waldershelf
Well-Known Member
- Posts
- 2,397
- Location
- In the hills north west of Sheffield
I finally got round to changing the cam belt on my 300tdi 90. After reading so many tales of woe on here and other places I was a bit worried.
I decided as it was my first cambelt change on one of these I would take the radiator/intercooler off to give me more room and visibility, it came out nice and easy and brought with it a bit of good news both the radiator and intercooler were clean inside and out, no build up of crud in either.
Next came the dreaded crank bolt, I got my 3/4 drive Air impact wrench and 27mm socket except on mine the bolt head's 30mm for some reason? and it wouldn't come undone, no chance. I tried the trick lodging the breaker bar under the chassis leg and flicking the starter and that worked. I think I will make up a proper tool for holding the crank for next time, the bang when the bolt released nearly stopped my heart.
I used the puller that came in the Ebay timing tools kit I bought and off came the fan belt pulley nice and easy. All the bolts came out of the timing case without any breakages, rounded off heads or any other issues.
When I got the timing cover off I came upon my first real snag, there was oil in the timing case and I hadn't got a replacement crank oil seal. I didn't fancy trying to lever out the cam belt drive gear so I made puller from a large washer and some 5mm screwed rod which worked nicely with a small 3 jaw puller.
I collected a new set of genuine crank seals including the O ring that sits behind the crank pulley and set about fitting them. What an absolute bitch to get the new inner seal in, it's such a tight fit I ended up using the old pulley as a drift and it still needed a lot of effort.
I wouldn't use a new pulley as there is a real chance of damaging it.
When I tried to fit the outer seal I came on another snag the seal I bought was for a later engine and wouldn't fit, Dozy sod in the parts place never mentioned there was more than one type and I had no idea.
Using the crank and pump pins from the timing set and my old needle type torque wrench the belt went on OK as did the rest of the reassembly including tightening the crank pulley bolt. 4th gear, number 1 son on the brake pedal and a 4 foot extension on a 3/4 drive socket did the 80NM plus 90 degrees, I guess the clutch is in decent nick.
When I stripped the timing gear I found, despite mine being an early one, the pulleys etc were all original and unmodified, so I guess not all the 300tdi's were affected by the much reported belt wear issues. Following advice on here and elsewhere I used a new forged rather than welded flanged crank pulley and a flanged tensioner pulley to go with a new idler and belt.
The moral of my not so woeful tale is not all 300tdi's are a nightmare to work on and even a high mileage early one can be OK. So if your engine needs a new cam belt don't be afraid, go for it and if you get stuck there's always plenty of help and advice here on Landyzone.
I decided as it was my first cambelt change on one of these I would take the radiator/intercooler off to give me more room and visibility, it came out nice and easy and brought with it a bit of good news both the radiator and intercooler were clean inside and out, no build up of crud in either.
Next came the dreaded crank bolt, I got my 3/4 drive Air impact wrench and 27mm socket except on mine the bolt head's 30mm for some reason? and it wouldn't come undone, no chance. I tried the trick lodging the breaker bar under the chassis leg and flicking the starter and that worked. I think I will make up a proper tool for holding the crank for next time, the bang when the bolt released nearly stopped my heart.
I used the puller that came in the Ebay timing tools kit I bought and off came the fan belt pulley nice and easy. All the bolts came out of the timing case without any breakages, rounded off heads or any other issues.
When I got the timing cover off I came upon my first real snag, there was oil in the timing case and I hadn't got a replacement crank oil seal. I didn't fancy trying to lever out the cam belt drive gear so I made puller from a large washer and some 5mm screwed rod which worked nicely with a small 3 jaw puller.
I collected a new set of genuine crank seals including the O ring that sits behind the crank pulley and set about fitting them. What an absolute bitch to get the new inner seal in, it's such a tight fit I ended up using the old pulley as a drift and it still needed a lot of effort.
I wouldn't use a new pulley as there is a real chance of damaging it.
When I tried to fit the outer seal I came on another snag the seal I bought was for a later engine and wouldn't fit, Dozy sod in the parts place never mentioned there was more than one type and I had no idea.
Using the crank and pump pins from the timing set and my old needle type torque wrench the belt went on OK as did the rest of the reassembly including tightening the crank pulley bolt. 4th gear, number 1 son on the brake pedal and a 4 foot extension on a 3/4 drive socket did the 80NM plus 90 degrees, I guess the clutch is in decent nick.
When I stripped the timing gear I found, despite mine being an early one, the pulleys etc were all original and unmodified, so I guess not all the 300tdi's were affected by the much reported belt wear issues. Following advice on here and elsewhere I used a new forged rather than welded flanged crank pulley and a flanged tensioner pulley to go with a new idler and belt.
The moral of my not so woeful tale is not all 300tdi's are a nightmare to work on and even a high mileage early one can be OK. So if your engine needs a new cam belt don't be afraid, go for it and if you get stuck there's always plenty of help and advice here on Landyzone.
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