Cambelt tightening

[Bjork]

Hi guys. I've replaced my head gasket and put everything back together.

Question is........can I tighten my cambelt properly without taking off the bottom cover and pulleys?

The cambelt stayed on the crankshaft pulley while I carried out the work. When I tighten the tensioner there still seems to be alot of play in the longest part of the belt.

Do I turn the engine by hand for it to tighten itself up or do I have to strip it down and fit as though I was replacing it?

It's a 1800 16v KR by the way, cheers.

[Ben Lessani]

The tensioner will only put tension on one side of the belt. The tension on the other side is provided by the teeth on the cam gear and crank gear.

When tensioning you need to line it up, fit the belt, then turn the crank ever so slightly whilst keeping the camshaft still - this will tighten up the front side of the belt, then you nip up the tensioner to pull in the tension on the back of the belt.

Not 100% sure whether you have the room to get to the tensioner with the bottom cover on, IIRC I didn't think you could.

[rubjonny]

as above but I do it the other way, hold crank still but turn the cam sprocket 

[Diamond Hell]

Either way, you need to make sure you leave enough slack in the belt that you can turn it through 90 degrees on the long run.  They don't have to be super-tight.

[Bjork]

Cheers guys. Gonna get someone to help me by holding crank still while I attack the cam.

Got side tracked now though as my Golf has decided it doesn't like oil anymore and has spewed it ALL out!!!!

Turns out it's coming out the top of the oil cooler so that's yet another job to my list!!!


I take it it's quite straight forward to put in a new one though?

[Ben Lessani]

You don't need 2 people, the crank won't turn back.