Changed Timing Belt & Water Pump

[SRVCM]

Well, I finally changed my timing belt and water pump on my 1994 es300 and it wasnt too bad. I thought I share share some secrets.

THIS IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART OR THE ROOKIE MECHANIC!!!!!!!!!

first of all I decided to change them since I had no ideal when the belt has been changed. My ES has 187630 miles on it and if it was changed at the 90k mark it would have been due now. Also the waterpump was leaking out the weep hole and I was constaltly having a wet spot under the car and with the weather cold as it is I didnt want to have the engine freeze and break something else.

I got the instructions from Autozone and studied the timing belt removal to get a feel for where everything was and began by jacking up the vehicle and setting jack stands under the vehicle. I then drained all the fluid from the radiator using the drain petcock located under the passenger side front of the radiator.

The first problem I encoutered was the camshaft bolts were very hard to remove. so I used the bolt holes that are used to hold the back cover to the timing belt cover as leverage by inserting longer bolt scews and letting the camshaft wheel set on the bolt while using a breaker bar with a short piece of pipe and slowly applying pressure to turn the bolt which work great without breaking any knuckels.

The second problem I encountered was with the timing belt tensioner that pushed on the # 2 idler(the bottom one) that takes up the slack of the timing belt. The book calls for depressing the pin and inserting a rod to keep the tensioner depressed. Well I inserted the pin too far and upon attempting to install it was smashed up against the recess and I couldnt pull the pin which resulted in me having to remove the tensioner again. I spend over an hour on this which was kinda agrravating.

When removing the belt it actually was very easy to remove following the steps listed in the autozone guide. However removing the waterpump was a little time consuming as it calls for raising the engine slightly for the two bolts to clear the side of the engine well. This was a little difficult due to the fact there are only so many places you can place the jack. I placed a board between the oil pan and the tranny pan lenghtwise from left to right between both wheels and used that as a jack point to prevent damage to any pans.

After you have removed the back cover to the timing belt(which is required to remove the waterpump) start by removing all the bolts to the waterpump. there are two guide pins that take nuts that run through the pump so remember that before installation.

Also in the installation of the pump I put the sealant on the gasket and on the mating surface of the engine and left the mating side of the gasket free of sealant which I pressed up against the engine. It could get messy with the sealant if you put it on both sides before you install the waterpump.

The third problem I ran into was the timing belt itself. The crankshaft mark on the belt was off which may have some to do with it being an aftermarket belt I insured that all the timing marks lined up prior to removal of the belt and made sure not to move them prior to installation of the belt. I ignored the belt mark and made sure the crankshaft dot was lined up the with arrow on the engine.

when I installed the belt the LH camshaft moved so I moved it back and followed the guide insuring all the slack was between the RH camshaft and the crankshaft so the tensioner could take up the slack. I then checked the timing marks on the cams and rechecked them insuring they were correct and started the engine prior to installing anything else. The engine ran perfectly so I reinstalled all components and filled the coolant with no problems.

It has been two days now and no problems with the timing belt or the pump and all is well.

if anyone needs any further infor let me know

[jet_a_jockey]

Good post. Just wanted to share that I recently did a waterpump replacement also. Instead of taking the back timing cover plate off, I just removed the bolts from it and then bent it slightly out with a screwdriver. This allowed the water pump to be removed and reinstalled without any problems, and saved me from having to break those cam bolts loose and remove the backing plate completely. (I actually ended up taking those loose later on when I was taking the top end apart, it took a 2 foot breaker bar and a 6 foot piece of pipe over it ^_^)

The only other issue I had was getting the timing marks straight on the cam gears. The back one was kind of hard to check, and it kept jumping a tooth because of its position at TDC kept it rocking back and forth with every little move.