I'll be changing my cam gears sometime shortly and was looking over the pics
of the timing belt, bal belt and tensioners in my manual.

My question is this, Can anyone tell me EXACTLY what is happening when I loosen the adjustment bolt sticking out of the timing belt cover ?

The bolt seems to go thru the timing belt pulley AND the bal shaft pulley (r they physically connected ?)

It seems that if I loosen the bolt, it'll let the TB auto tensioner and the bal shaft tensioner take up any slack in the system. Tightening the bolt will lock the pulleys in place so they can't adjust . Is this right ?




[Modified by Mover, 10:34 AM 7/30/2002]

 

you mean the bolt with the cotter pin going through the head? if so, when you loosen it, it backs against the tensioner pulley to keep it from moving. it's not a normal bolt. down by the threads, it has a washer shaped head which is what wedges itself against the body of the tensioner pulley.

 

So... at some point when I'm loosening it, it should get tighter as the washer wedges against the back of the pulley ?

In otherwords, the pulley that the auto-tensioner adjusts is only 'locked down' when doing maintenance. During regular driving, the tensioner constantly adjusts the pulley location to take up any slack in the timing belt. Right ?

That would mean if you had a 'loose' timing belt, you either had a stretched belt or bad auto-tensioner. Does this make sense ?










[Modified by Mover, 12:51 PM 7/30/2002]

 

EXACTLY!!!

 

Thanks