Just finished my timing belt and water pump change today. I spent about 8 hours with one of my friend help me. I started at about 9 AM and finished at about 5 PM. Actually my friend used to work in a garage for 3 months and he has some basic mechanic skills.
I used a 3 inch 3 jaw pulley to take the hamonic balancer out without any problem. I also got a long bolt to work as an insert.
The only challenge we have is align the timing belt. The OEM timing belt is not aligned in the middle when TDC, the first camshaft sprocket mark is close to the left dot, while the second camshaft sprocket mark is almost in the middle of the two dots.(belt start from crankshaft counterclockwise)
Follow the service manual, we put new belt on from crankshaft counter clockwise.
we tried 2 times and found it was hard to align the right timing mark when screwed the hydrolic tensioner on even before release the latch which holds the pushing pin.
So finally my friend figured out the first sprocket should be 1 tooth right to the right dot, and the second sprocket 2 teeth right to the right dot. then when putting the hydrolic tensioner on and release the latch the belt will roll to left and both of the timing marks on the 2 sprockets fall just in the middle of the 2 dots.
I use Dayco timing belt. After new belt was on, I turned the crankshaft several revolutions and checked the timing marks, both are in the middle of dots when crankshaft was in TDC.
I didn't use the 6642 tool.
I drove the car on highway for about 1 hour after the belt was changed, no more leak, car ran smoothly like before, no engine warning light on.
with a lot of help from this website, I finally finished my first timing belt change. This is a big step up compared to my previous work on intrepid.
Yesterday I went to the machine shop in my company to borrow some tools for this project, the manager said " hope I can see you Monday". He doesn't believe an electronic technologist can finish this job. So at least I can say thanks next Monday.
