Cambelt Change

[S6OOH]

Forgive me but I was watching Car SOS whilst under the influence the other evening. They were doing a cambelt change and he simply cut the old belt down the middle, leaving half the belt in place, slid the new belt on and then cut the old belt off and slid the new one fully on (and presumably tightened up the tensioner.

This makes sense but seems too simple, esp given the proposed charges for changing belts on some cars

Am I missing something or is this a winner?

Cheers
Richard

[stevieturbo]

S6OOH said:

Forgive me but I was watching Car SOS whilst under the influence the other evening. They were doing a cambelt change and he simply cut the old belt down the middle, leaving half the belt in place, slid the new belt on and then cut the old belt off and slid the new one fully on (and presumably tightened up the tensioner.

This makes sense but seems too simple, esp given the proposed charges for changing belts on some cars

Am I missing something or is this a winner?

Cheers
Richard

It may be doable on some vehicles....but then it also assumes the belt was on the correct way in the first place.

And quite often, that is not the case

[HustleRussell]

Sloppy way of working if you ask me. This method doesn't really make the job much easier, being that the bulk of the work is often in removing ancillary belt, removing the pulleys and covers etc, unbolting engine mounts and supporting the engine for access and then doing the reverse on re-fitting.

The main downsides are;
as above, you aren't verifying the timing is correct
you can't check or replace the tensionner or water pump
it's probably actually rather fiddly to cut the belt down the middle, and potentially more dangerous as you will be using a sharp blade in a limited space with limited visibility

[Sardonicus]

HustleRussell said:

Sloppy way of working if you ask me. This method doesn't really make the job much easier, being that the bulk of the work is often in removing ancillary belt, removing the pulleys and covers etc, unbolting engine mounts and supporting the engine for access and then doing the reverse on re-fitting.

The main downsides are;
as above, you aren't verifying the timing is correct
you can't check or replace the tensionner or water pump
it's probably actually rather fiddly to cut the belt down the middle, and potentially more dangerous as you will be using a sharp blade in a limited space with limited visibility

This ^ its a sloppy layman's way of doing the job

[stevieturbo]

And lets face it, most car related TV programs certainly within the UK...the standards of workmanship are absolutely diabolical.

And not in a good way. So it wouldnt generally be wise to copy things you see on tv.

[Sardonicus]

stevieturbo said:

And lets face it, most car related TV programs certainly within the UK...the standards of workmanship are absolutely diabolical.

And not in a good way. So it wouldnt generally be wise to copy things you see on tv.

Nuff said

[blade7]

To be fair Fuzz did say it did away with any special tools, some cam sprockets aren't keyed onto the cams so if you aren't familiar with a particular setup it could help.

[Stiggolas]

Wish I'd done it that way with my Alfa, might still have it......