Anxiety over changing the cam belt - 2.5 diesel.

[Donnie]

So, I have a new cambelt, pulley and spring.
I've so far in the last few months done the exhaust manifold / turbo myself, changed the 3 auxillary belts myself, blanked the egr off, bypassed the rear heater pipes, flushed and changed the coolant and bled everything, removed front bumper to replace crappy fogs with originals and fitted a bull bar (lets see who's first to shout "Fender defender")

So, why is it Im anxious about doing the cambelt?

I've downloaded a copy of the factsheet etc and I seem to get a bit worried when it talks of the glowpugs needing removal and I think Ive read that people can run into problems here which does worry me.

[Bob]

We tend to worry about the unknown.

Sounds like you've done a good bit of hands on stuff, recon you'll be fine once you roll your sleeves up.

[rita]

So, I have a new cambelt, pulley and spring.
I've so far in the last few months done the exhaust manifold / turbo myself, changed the 3 auxillary belts myself, blanked the egr off, bypassed the rear heater pipes, flushed and changed the coolant and bled everything, removed front bumper to replace crappy fogs with originals and fitted a bull bar (lets see who's first to shout "Fender defender")

So, why is it Im anxious about doing the cambelt?

I've downloaded a copy of the factsheet etc and I seem to get a bit worried when it talks of the glowpugs needing removal and I think Ive read that people can run into problems here which does worry me.

You do not need to remove the glow plugs to change a cam belt, the reason some people might remove them is to turn the engine over easier, but it is not required and could lead to complications.

[Donnie]

We tend to worry about the unknown.

Sounds like you've done a good bit of hands on stuff, recon you'll be fine once you roll your sleeves up.

Yeah, logically I should be ok, i guess its the worry of getting the timing cocked up

[Donnie]

So, I have a new cambelt, pulley and spring.
I've so far in the last few months done the exhaust manifold / turbo myself, changed the 3 auxillary belts myself, blanked the egr off, bypassed the rear heater pipes, flushed and changed the coolant and bled everything, removed front bumper to replace crappy fogs with originals and fitted a bull bar (lets see who's first to shout "Fender defender")

So, why is it Im anxious about doing the cambelt?

I've downloaded a copy of the factsheet etc and I seem to get a bit worried when it talks of the glowpugs needing removal and I think Ive read that people can run into problems here which does worry me.

You do not need to remove the glow plugs to change a cam belt, the reason some people might remove them is to turn the engine over easier, but it is not required and could lead to complications.

I thought that you had to or you wouldn't be able to get the timing marks lined up though?

[rita]

As I said....

You do not need to remove the glow plugs to change a cam belt, the reason some people might remove them is to turn the engine over easier, but it is not required and could lead to complications.

If you realy want to remove the glow/heater plugs and it would make you feel better that is your choice.

Good Luck.

[mikeonb4c]

As I said....

You do not need to remove the glow plugs to change a cam belt, the reason some people might remove them is to turn the engine over easier, but it is not required and could lead to complications.

If you realy want to remove the glow/heater plugs and it would make you feel better that is your choice.

Good Luck.

Could there be any difficulty turning the engine over and/or getting it to stay put if there is compression in the cylinders. Given the risks associated with trying to remove glowplugs, is there a way (maybe a bar in the crank pulley or something like that) which could help if the engine should need to be turned and or held in place against compression.

[rita]

As I said....

You do not need to remove the glow plugs to change a cam belt, the reason some people might remove them is to turn the engine over easier, but it is not required and could lead to complications.

If you realy want to remove the glow/heater plugs and it would make you feel better that is your choice.

Good Luck.

Could there be any difficulty turning the engine over and/or getting it to stay put if there is compression in the cylinders. Given the risks associated with trying to remove glowplugs, is there a way (maybe a bar in the crank pulley or something like that) which could help if the engine should need to be turned and or held in place against compression.

If you turn the engine using the crank shaft use a 38mm? socket or spanner, owing to the fact that only one cylinder at a time is at TDC there should not be a lot of compression if any ..

[Donnie]

As I said....

You do not need to remove the glow plugs to change a cam belt, the reason some people might remove them is to turn the engine over easier, but it is not required and could lead to complications.

If you realy want to remove the glow/heater plugs and it would make you feel better that is your choice.

Good Luck.

God no, I dont want to remove them as the complications are exactly what I want to avoid lol!!!

I honestly thought that it wasn't an option.

So as long as I can turn the crank to get the marks lined up it should be basically follow the rest of the instructions on the factsheet?

[rita]

As I said....

You do not need to remove the glow plugs to change a cam belt, the reason some people might remove them is to turn the engine over easier, but it is not required and could lead to complications.

If you realy want to remove the glow/heater plugs and it would make you feel better that is your choice.

Good Luck.

God no, I dont want to remove them as the complications are exactly what I want to avoid lol!!!

I honestly thought that it wasn't an option.

So as long as I can turn the crank to get the marks lined up it should be basically follow the rest of the instructions on the factsheet?

Sorry I dont know what instructions are in the fact sheet but I am pretty sure it will be ok .

[Donnie]

Well sod it, I had a spare hour so Ive made a start but hit my first stumbling block, I thought the socket i had was a 38mm but its only a darn 36mm! dammit. One on it's way via amazon to arrive tomorrow so back at it then i guess.

[nth]

I would never normally bother taking glow or spark plugs out when changing a timing belt unless I was replacing them anyway, I didn't bother on the Bongo.
It's actually a very easy belt to change, just access that's a pain, a small mirror will help loads when lining up the timing marks, because your working from 'behind' the belt & can't look at it straight on its hard to see if the marks a correctly aligned.

[willow2u]

could always loosen of bottom pulley bolt then get it jacked up take of belly guard and work on it from underneath looking at engine when i did my last one i think i just marked the old cambelt and pulleys then transferred marks to new belt and fitted it as it was without lining up any timing marks

[JulesMartin]

There is another way without a socket. if you remove the rear inspection plate located between the two front seats you'll see a small inspection plate on the top of the bell housing. if you remove that you can turn the engine using a large flat bladed screwdriver pushed into the ring gear teeth and by levering against the edge of the inspection hole you can slowly turn the engine over. I didn't have the right socket when i rebuilt my engine and used this method to align the timing marks. if you use a torch you will see the timing marks appear in the inspection plate stamped on to the ring gear and TDC here coincides with TDC on the cam and pump marks. hope this helps. I didn't remove the glow plugs and had no problems

[Donnie]

Well just wanted to update ye, I did it, well changed it the spring and tensioner and rotated twice as per instructions to ensure all marks still lined up and happy days!!

Im done for the day now though as its fiddly as heck and my old back can only cope with stuff in stages, tomorrow will be get the cover back on and get the engine turning over

A big thanks to all on here though for their support and help