Having purchased a timing kit of tools to change my Disco belt soon I was intrigued to hear of a guy who replaces belts on many vehicles including Discos without any special tools. I must say I have never heard of this method before . Which is as follows, He cuts down the centre of the belt with a sharp knife and then slips off the outer half. He then slides on the new belt onto the exposed half of the gears then cuts off the other half of the old belt and slides on the remaining half of the new one without disturbing timing settings. I presume he would have to slacken the tension to do this. Anyway seems too easy to be true but it seems quite feasible. Any of you greasy fingers ever heard of this. ?. I have got around many problems in the past with non authentic methods but this one is new to me. Lets have some comments on this please. Chas.

Hiya Chas Dolan,

Can't say I've heard of that one before. Sounds like it should work but is it really worth the risk? For the sake of a couple of hours by doing it by the book could save you thousands of pounds if it all goes pear shaped!

Unless you can get the bloke to do it for you and give you some kind of guarantee, I would forget all about it.

But hey if you do try it then let us know all know how you get on!

Good luck!

ive heard of this being done by running the engine and holding a stanley knife on the centre of the belt but you wont be able to run yours dont advise it

I have to say that I have never used any special tools for any land rover Cam belt change.

I will also say that I do not recommend the above method as I can see this stretching the new belt.

I have worked in the trade for a quite few years and I hate changing cam belts, but changing them just by making your own timing marks comes with experience. So unless you are confident, use all the locking tools to be safe and avoid expensive repair bills!

Jim