ANOTHER timing belt thread please read !

Just a couple questions after my tb install last night which was a lot more rough then i thought those gates belts are snug ! and yes the cam was fully counterclockwise and the tensioner was set properly

here are the few questions which you all will know off the top of your heads.

The tensioner tab is a little further then where its suppose to be by about 3/16 does it matter? Didn't seem to move much more tension anyway i reset it to where its suppose to be but when i torque it down and spin the engine over it moves over a little bit...

The cam bolts are not in the same spot as they were with the old belt. It is in time as i spun it over about 3 full revolutions installing the locks they go in with only about 1/16th wiggle needed to set both of them.

The belt is not center on the crank or the water pump but i figured that it will slide to where it comfortable when i fire her up.

sorry for the multiple posts no one was reading the other one and i need trhese answers before i put this thing back together! Thanks guys!!!

Does yours look like this:



I missed the part in my Bentley manual that states the cam pulley (red) dot needs to line up with a mark of the rear timing belt cover. You can see this dot at about 2:00 O'Clock on the pulley in the picture. This puts the pulley bolts in the center of their adjustment slots. I was off two teeth on the camshaft when I replaced my belt following the instructions here (move cam pulley fulley left of slots with belt off), and then one tooth after I redid it. The picture above shows one tooth off, camshaft bolts at the end of the adjustment slots.

To fix this, I ended up removing the camshaft pulley (just remove the three bolts), and putting it in the belt in the correct location, which was installed on the crank, water pump, tensioner and roller (cam and crank locked with tools) and then put the cam pulley on its hub and inserted the three adjustment bolts. It worked perfectly.

My guess is you are one cog tooth off on the camshaft, but the adjustment slots allow enough movement in the cam pulley to have the camshaft timed properly. The three camshaft pulley bolts just are not in the centers of the slots. It is probably OK, but I redid mine.

Are you referring to the tensioner pointer being off a little after engine rotation? I'd probably reset it. You'll have to if you reset your timing belt on the cam sprocket. When I redid mine, I wlready installed the new engine mount bolts and torqued them, so I had to work around them to release the tensioner and torque its nut later. The only thing is you can't get a torque wrench on the nut with the mount intsalled and torqued down. I used a box end wrench on the tensioner nut and just got it fairly tight.

My belt tracks slightly differently than the original too. You should be fine if its not rubbing the covers or hanging over its pulleys.

--Nate

So overall it should work right? To be honest I don't think I saw any red marks on my Cam gear. I appreciate your response lots of good info. I think I'm going to leave it I know the engines in time I don't see moving the gear over as a benefit since it wont make a difference in how it runs. The tensioner I might re adjust but I'm alittle sketch since I've loosened and really tightened it so many times. Thanks PDF for the response anyone else have any input?

The goal is to end up with the locking pin more or less centered in the slotted cam window. If you're close, good enough.

Put it together and start it. Motor on.

I think you're asking if the pointer MUST be centered in the slot?

I would like to know that also, because it may alter the tension placed on the belt.Mine moved after I snugged the nut. I redid it and it moved again after the engine was rotated. I couldn't get it centered to save my life!!

So, on mine it's close, but still off. I couldn't detect much of a difference in the tension on the belt, either. It's run 4,000km since.....with the pointer just ever so slightly off center......but it's been niggling away at the back of my mind.

SO....is this OK....or not??

I'm pretty sure that the Cam locking pin is more towards one end of the of the slot. Will this cause a running issue?

SIUMATTHEW said:

I'm pretty sure that the Cam locking pin is more towards one end of the of the slot. Will this cause a running issue?

Click to expand...

Nope.

That's what I needed paramedic. I understand getting the Cam gear centeredis a good thing but since the Cam and crank are in time I don't see how it makes a difference where the bolts are in the slots

That is what the adjustment slots are for. The width of the slot gives more adjustment than a belt tooth's width (just about two, actually). So as long as the three bolts are not up against the end of their slots (in other words, have a little adjustment left) with the crankshaft and camshaft pined at TDC and the belt tensioned, you should be fine.

If you look at my picture above, the cam sprocket is one tooth off, but the camshaft is properly timed. The camshaft sprocket bolts are about 2 mm from the end of the adjustment slots, so about the width of the adjustment slots represent a little over two belt tooth widths. If the sprocket were removed from the belt and rotated one belt tooth's width clockwise and reinstalled, the adjustment bolt slots would just about be centered (which is what I ended up doing).

If your bolts are about a a quarter of the way from the slot ends, you are fine, as long as the bolts are loose and the camshaft and crankshaft are locked down and the belt tensioned.

Remember after you set all of this and before you HAND rotate the engine two revolutions CW, tighten the cam sprocket bolts to lock the cam adjustment and the tensioner nut should already be fully tightened.

--Nate

Alright thanks for the help boys everything turned out good!

I did got back and re adjust the tensioner a million times cause it was a little difficult to get it dead nuts but i will say that i think i was getting a deep noise coming from the tb area when it was tensioned tighter.

I didn't know what it was at first i thought i was just hearing things but when i adjusted the tensioner i believe it helped with getting rid of the noise.

But i was also thinking that it might of just been the belt breaking in...

I left the cam where it was just like in the picture posted above. It runs identical to before i did the tb so i know its not off.

after the next 100K and im replacing it again i will know how to get it centered .

Thanks again!!

SIUMATTHEW said:

after the next 100K and im replacing it again i will know how to get it centered .

Thanks again!!

Click to expand...

Ummm....just in case you're still reading this, make that 80K. The official interval was changed by VW last year.