3.0 V6 Cambelt

Just a word of encouragement to all facing this job.
Easy..peasy....
Miles easier than a 164 cambelt.
Been putting it off for ages - good job I did it as the edge of the belt had been rubbing on one of the tin lower covers and was starting to break up.The belt had been replaced by a local garage about 20K ago, but the idler pulleys and tensioner hadn't been replaced.
Hardest bit was removing old belt, should have just snipped it!
Mark it up well with paint, if you are going to do this job.
It took me about 1.5 hours.
If you have done a few cambelts before, this won't be too difficult.
£200 for belt , pulleys and tensioner though!!
Cheers!

Originally Posted by Generallee

Just a word of encouragement to all facing this job.
Easy..peasy....
Miles easier than a 164 cambelt.
Been putting it off for ages - good job I did it as the edge of the belt had been rubbing on one of the tin lower covers and was starting to break up.The belt had been replaced by a local garage about 20K ago, but the idler pulleys and tensioner hadn't been replaced.
Hardest bit was removing old belt, should have just snipped it!
Mark it up well with paint, if you are going to do this job.
It took me about 1.5 hours.
If you have done a few cambelts before, this won't be too difficult.
£200 for belt , pulleys and tensioner though!!
Cheers!

I dont know about the 164 Generallee but it is fairly straightforward but not as easy as a 1972 Vauxhall Victor FD 2000cc....Now that was simple.


Well done.But perhaps you shouild have done the water pump while you were in there.

Pomeo

Pomeo lol..........Kick a man in the nuts why dont you!!

the tension will be uneven around the belt as the belt moves from cam wheel to cam wheel, unless you have slackened off the retaining bolts on each cam. Will not be an immediate problem, but the belt will not last the 60k miles IMO

I know people say this, but why? The belt is the same size, the pulleys won't move on the camshaft.There is no "extra load" on the camshaft even if it were a midges out - which it shouldn't be.
Never had this problem with any other twin cam or quad cam.
Diesels will run a tooth or 2 out and the belts don't last less.
I still don't get the reason behind this argument, unless the pulleys have been off and valve timing needs to be set up initially.
Montego 1.6 cambelt - 10 mins max - don't even have to take the bottom pulley off!!

Generallee,

I think you are dead right. When I did the belts on my T spark I used the cam locks but dont' see the logic at all.

Even if the belt had a slight difference to the new one (say a tiny amount out per tooth) I can't see how the supposed slack or extra tight between the cams on the same head is supposed to happen.

I'm with you on this one.

Richard

As the cambelt goes round the tension will vary continously from cog to cog on account of the effect of the cam loadings on each cog. These loadings vary as the camshafts assume different angular positions. The belt tension will have different tensions both between cogs and at different times. The actual length of the belt does not really affect these tensions, although it would affect the timing if the length variation was too great. It should not be necessary to loosen the cogs each time a new belt is fitted so long as the timing itself is correct beforehand.
I have done many belts over the years, and had no problems at all. I have found that using plastic ties to locate the belt on the cams whilst setting things up really helps - they are easily snipped off when ready to rotate the motor. One tie on each cog locates the belt on that cog and avoids belt slip, which is a real pain!
Hope these comments help.
Alex.

I used a similar idea of pushing some medium density foam rubber between the belt on the pulley and the casings, so that as I set each pulley, the belt would not slip, making the job really easy.As I said before - mark it up well and double check the marks when done - set the tensioner - turn over again a few times by hand and check timing marks again. Couldn't be simpler.
Cam shaft loads are nothing compared to the drive load from the crank pulley.There's more than one way to skin a cat!!

Originally Posted by Generallee

Just a word of encouragement to all facing this job.
Easy..peasy....
Miles easier than a 164 cambelt.
Been putting it off for ages - good job I did it as the edge of the belt had been rubbing on one of the tin lower covers and was starting to break up.The belt had been replaced by a local garage about 20K ago, but the idler pulleys and tensioner hadn't been replaced.
Hardest bit was removing old belt, should have just snipped it!
Mark it up well with paint, if you are going to do this job.
It took me about 1.5 hours.
If you have done a few cambelts before, this won't be too difficult.
£200 for belt , pulleys and tensioner though!!
Cheers!

Sorry to hijack your cambelt thread man, but i noticed you own a 69 charger..... I always wanted one of those.... with a huge yank style roots blower sticking out the bonnet.. and 30 inch slicks on the rear.. lucky man, lucky man...!!

Been working on it 4 years - might see the road this summer.
Tis a General Lee - might try and post a pic as I've just finished the back end.Trim and front to do. 7.3 V8 - nice and economical. Should be about 450 Hp.
Was a 5 litre, drum brakes , no servo !!!!! but now have discs and servo.
And NO CAMBELT!!

Please do! Would love to read about it. Did you see thge Year One dukes of hazzard replica?

Hi, no I didn't.I'll have a search for it now.
Seen pictures and story of Lee 1, the first General Lee.
There is a possibility, although very slight, that the one I have may have been in the series, but I am trying to prove this.It was rare because it originally had a white interior and "buddy" seat.I saw one in the series once, but Warner Brothers say they never released a GL with white trim in it.There are only 17 true GL's that Warner Bros sold, so I am told, but I'm not so sure! Not bothered if it is or not.I'll try and post some pics on photobucket, and put a link on here.
Cheers, or should I say....Yeeeeeee Hawwwwwwwww.
(sorry if you expected some Alfa chat!)

I can't find it now, looks like year 1 have revamped their site and taken down a lot of the build pics.

OK, put a few pics on at:
http://s151.photobucket.com/albums/s...ral%20Lee/
Cheers

Had a ride in the Haynes Muesum Charger a few years ago. Absolute hoot...but Oh, those drum brakes!!!

Anyhoo...cambelts - I too don't get the need to loosen the camwheels and use locks, assuming(!) correct timing to start with. Yes, you may get the slightest variation in cam timing when you change the belt, due to variations between old & new, but the many, many engines with keyed camshafts have no provision to adjust this and they seem to work OK.

I'd like to hear the engine designers rationale behind non-keyed cams. They are pretty common these days.

I can see the value of cam locks of some sort to get the timing right though, as some of the marks on some engines are pretty ambiguous. Not such a big deal if you slit the old belt and slide on the new one, but if you want to replace tensioners and water pumps etc, that's not an option.

I changed the idlers and the tensioner as well - no probs.
My Charger was originally a 318 cubic inch (5.2L) with drum brakes and NO servo!!
Now its a 440 cu in (7.3l) with discs and servo.Should be about 450 hp.