MK5 SMILEY 2.5 1997 TIMING Belt..is it hard to do??

[97transit2.5D]

Hi want to have a go.
anyone done one?
if ford do it its 450 quid incl parts of new water pump .tensioner and belt.

[gotgcoalman]

New pump/belt/idler and fresh coolant will be less than £100 for branded parts.

First time allow a weekend to do it.

viewtopic.php?f=18&t=56801

have a read first.

[vanfox]

I would change/add the following:
Clean all the crap out of the belt cover torx bolts or you will round at least one out. They can stick in the ally panel.
If only changing as opposed to replacing a snapped belt pin the camshaft first. This will bring the correct flywheel hole in line.

[drivetheglobe]

Hi,
I'm no expert. Did it twice already , used bucheli repair manual (in German).
- First hurdle is to get the ventilator out. A big screw-wrench and a good argument with a hammer will do . (its free rotating so hammer will loose it using physicy - inertness..)
- loosen wheels for venti and water-pump
- loosen screws on generator wheel
- demount belt
- Loosing screws has been discussed above, for mine was no issue, just had to be careful not to damage the Torxes..
- Then: A little bit hard to get all the bolts in the holes. Dont give up until you have all them in when the old belt is still on.
Think the explanation in the "bucheli" book is best for the right order to put the bolts in. I just used drill.
First: Tricky might be to find the whole on the flywheel on the back: you have to put out the sensor, a 13mm drill fits then.
Second: camshaft gear wheel - 8mm
Third: I think 6mm for the pump wheel
- Then you have to loosen the screws on the wheel for the pump.
- demount timing belt
- when mounting, let the tensioner pulley flip in
- then turn 2 rounds and 1/4 back (crankshaft )
- test again with the bolts

good luck

[Bulletguy]

Hi want to have a go.
anyone done one?
if ford do it its 450 quid incl parts of new water pump .tensioner and belt.

That price seems a tad high. My water pump packed up in Germany last year so had to take it to the closest garage which happened to be a VW dealer but they had the van overnight to dismantle everything ready for the pump which arrived the following morning. I had the van back by mid-day and charge was €350.

[sputy]

I have just finished doing my timing belt, the water pump had started leaking so I thought it best to do the timing belt too, even though the previous owner said he'd replaced the timing belt himself.

When I got everything open I found that the timing belt indeed looked fine but I replaced it anyway.

Getting the fan off was initially awkward , I used a suitable big spanner and hammer to shock it, and a big screwdriver, the screwriver wedged between the screws on the pulley and I put screwdriver and spanner in a V and pressed down on both spanner and screwdriver as evenly as possible and it then came loose quite easily and no sheared bolts.

The haynes manual said about finding TDC and to take out the epic sensor to do so for replacing the timing belt , to be able to lock tdc through the sensor hole.

This filled me with dread , what if a connector broke or the sensor broke as I took it out ?

As the timing belt was intact I and as such should pose no problem to replacing the engine / belt position I decided to do the tippex method, locking the cam and injector pulleys with drills and left it in 5th gear with the handbrake on to lock the crank.

I marked the old belt to a mark on the engine plate so that everything should be still in sync. I offered the new belt up to the old one and transposed the marks on the old belt to the new belt, using pegs to make sure the belts didn't fall off as I was doing it.

I fitted the new water pump. I used the supplied gasket rather then sealant, I read that the gaskets are made for the job, and as that seems logical I followed the logic.

I fitted the new style timing belt tensioner - wow what an improvement over the old one ! no more planks of wood or fighting intransigent springs ! I replaced water hoses and gingerly started her up ... successs ! what a relief... now to fill with antifreze and replace the fan and bodywork.

As i'm getting old I think its a good idea to take photos before and during strip-down, and to get a cornflakes box and draw the outline of what goes where and make holes in the cardboard for the bolts you just took out, that's important on long bolts as you don't want to be putting the too long bolt in a hole, tightening and then cracking something. It's also good for if you get interrupted and just can't remember what goes where.

It took me ages grappling with the plastic timing belt cover , should have been easy but it turned out that it was cracked at the crank and so was using more space than it would normally.

I greatly appreciate the advice given by fordtransit.org in general and this thread - another happy customer !