2.1TD Cambelt Fitting

[HimBigChief]

I've just got in after spending the last 3 hours trying everything I can think of to get the new cambelt to fit. It's so unbelievably close to fitting, it's really doing my head in!

I've got the tensioner as far down and to the left as I can get it, I've soaked the belt in boiling water, tried fitting it tensioner last and water pump last, but no matter what I try it just won't bloody go on!

Is there an easy way and I'm just missing a trick? Or am I just going to have to use a bit of BFI to get the thing on?

[StevieboyTD]

This is fulling me with confidence, i've got to do mine once the stitches in my hand clear up.

The belt has to go clockwise with these, else the tensioner knocks the timing out because the slack is on the wrong side of the loop, dunno if that helps...

[HimBigChief]

Didn't realise the belt had a direction! Guess I'll need to make sure I get it the right way round when I continue.

[jasper5]

Mark the teeth of the camshaft pulley with tippex or paint so that you know where the pulley is in relation to the locking pin hole ....then pull out the locking pin for the camshaft....fit a spanner to the cam pulley and jiggle the pulley back and forth until the belt goes on.

Stick the locking pin back in and away you go.

Make sure the tight side of the belt is the right hand side.

The belt should be fitted.....crank pulley first, then guide pulley, then camshaft pulley, tensioner, then water pump.

[HimBigChief]

Cheers Jasper, I shall give that a go.

One question, when you say to mark the teeth of the cam pulley, what am I marking against / referencing? Or is it just so I know how far I've rotated the pulley?

[jasper5]

Cheers Jasper, I shall give that a go.

One question, when you say to mark the teeth of the cam pulley, what am I marking against / referencing? Or is it just so I know how far I've rotated the pulley?

Mark the teeth against the cylinder head or any clear reference point....I usually mark 3 teeth about 2 teeth apart.

[jasper5]

Did you finally get your belt fitted?

[HimBigChief]

Didn't get chance this evening, had to look after the little one. May get chance tomorrow, but more than likely be the weekend now. I did liberate some tippex from work to mark the cam pulley up though!

[Doggy]

Come on Chiefy!

We're all nibbling fingernails like expectant parents here........

[DiscoPol]

+1

[StevieboyTD]

+2

I'm waiting to see any pitfalls before i have a go at my own car, hurry up man!

[HimBigChief]

Belt's now on. Cranked it over 2 full revolutions by hand and seem to get compression on all 4 cylinders, and all locking holes aligned too! In the midst of rebuilding it currently, so hopefully by the end of the weekend I may have a running 406 for the first time since before Christmas...

All the fuss was because the adjuster cam bolt type thingy on the tensioner was stripped so I wasn't able to fully compress the tensioner, but I wasn't aware of this. Got a crowbar in there and levered if further down, locked it in place and hey presto, on went the belt easy as pie! My own stupidity really! It is the first time I've ever attempted a timing belt change though, so I'm pretty happy at how it's gone, especially as I've another car to run around in so there's no stress to get it done.

[Doggy]

Good news HBC. I'm sure we'll all sleep more soundly once we know it's purring like a good un.

[HimBigChief]

Well, it's not purring. It's turning over fine, but not starting. It looks like it's an immobiliser issue as I've had to reconnect the keypad, and when I put the code in, both red and green lights come on. I've taken the battery off and will leave it on charge overnight, then stick it back on in the morning and see what happens. I have spotted a broken wire, but that looks like it's more to do with the glowplugs than the ECU/diesel pump.

Any pointers will be more than welcome!

[HimBigChief]

Right, been out and stuck the freshly recharged battery on, and still the exact same problem. I can enter the code, but both red and green lights come on. I also tried adding the supposed default codes (0000 and 1111) and the lights did the exact same thing. Anyone got any ideas, or I am going to have to send the ECU off for decoding, or alternatively am I going to have to butcher the immobiliser to run an ignition live?

BTW, when the engine's turning over everything sounds fine, so I'm quite happy there. Just need to solve this immobiliser issue before finding out whether the engine's fixed or not.