rocco79/138
True Classic
That is my new folk song I learned last week while retrieving my old PT Cruiser from my folks in Michigan...
We knew going in that we would have some repairs to get it road ready but we were not prepared for the ordeal we were faced with...
We had a set of flex brake lines sent to their home since my dad had some trouble before and he thought it would be good to replace those lines and renew the fluid. It really only needed one new line and probably just the new caliper we had to add once in it.
Next it was on to the coolant leak, which I had diagnosed a couple years back to be the thermostat gasket failure. I ordered the part but it had never been installed.
Once that was done and we topped off and bled the system we went off for shakedown. Return with coolant dripping off the front of the engine... From under all the timing covers and components... I was longing for a miracle repair, something that pours out of a bottle and fixes everything, forever! But I knew we were staring at a timing belt/water pump replacement... We found the parts in a kit locally so the next morning we set out to make the repairs. Parts in hand and the car up on a stand we began... Absolutely the worst repair I have ever performed! 5 or 6 hours in we were near torn down... There is a large bolt that holds a bracket in place that bolts through the shock tower and is exposed to road grime salt and everything the front tire goes through. That bolt was welded in place! Soaked with penetrant for the entire day I couldn't get it to break free. Not enough room to swing a 1/2 drive and all of our 3/8 drives just popped when we attempted to turn using a bar to leverage. We were finally able to get it to turn late in the evening and unlike most bolts when freed it was very difficult to turn right down to the last thread! With the bracket removed we could actually remove all the other parts off the engine that were too big to get out of the bay with the bracket in place. Turned in for the night with everything off and ready to assemble first thing next morning...
Day two:
The kit we bought was first gen tensioner. I paid to have the job done last time and was told it was more because of the timing group upgrade... So I now understand what that was about. The only part that changed was the tensioner so we were able to locate one at O'Reilly's. Now with all the correct parts on to reassembly! The offending water pump is located under several layers of stuff and the first to go back on. Everything was much better going on than coming off until the actual belt... Holy cow! Big thick belt around crank, WP, idler, two cam pulleys and the tensioner... The additional 1/64th of an inch excess they allow for install did not seem adequate... After learning a few new cuss words I decided to seek advice from the oracle. Turned out timing belt trick turned up a YouTube cheat. So I loosened the idler and that tilted slightly to allow the belt to just barely slip over the tensioner. The cam pulleys were tricky but not too bad and there was plenty of info on how to set them properly. Once the belt was on the idler could be retorqued and the tensioner set. Two rounds of the crank shaft and a quick check for correct timing and proper tension and everything else goes back on.
It is every bit as tight as an X but the snail mount is replaced with massive cast piece with an integral PS pump hanger. Unlike the X all must come off for belt access. The engine must be jacked as high as possible just to remove these items. That also explained the damage done the last time the job was done! I am glad to have this done but I would never grip over any X1/9 maintenance! Yikes! What a task! Happily it is my last PT belt change!!!
Regards
We knew going in that we would have some repairs to get it road ready but we were not prepared for the ordeal we were faced with...
We had a set of flex brake lines sent to their home since my dad had some trouble before and he thought it would be good to replace those lines and renew the fluid. It really only needed one new line and probably just the new caliper we had to add once in it.
Next it was on to the coolant leak, which I had diagnosed a couple years back to be the thermostat gasket failure. I ordered the part but it had never been installed.
Once that was done and we topped off and bled the system we went off for shakedown. Return with coolant dripping off the front of the engine... From under all the timing covers and components... I was longing for a miracle repair, something that pours out of a bottle and fixes everything, forever! But I knew we were staring at a timing belt/water pump replacement... We found the parts in a kit locally so the next morning we set out to make the repairs. Parts in hand and the car up on a stand we began... Absolutely the worst repair I have ever performed! 5 or 6 hours in we were near torn down... There is a large bolt that holds a bracket in place that bolts through the shock tower and is exposed to road grime salt and everything the front tire goes through. That bolt was welded in place! Soaked with penetrant for the entire day I couldn't get it to break free. Not enough room to swing a 1/2 drive and all of our 3/8 drives just popped when we attempted to turn using a bar to leverage. We were finally able to get it to turn late in the evening and unlike most bolts when freed it was very difficult to turn right down to the last thread! With the bracket removed we could actually remove all the other parts off the engine that were too big to get out of the bay with the bracket in place. Turned in for the night with everything off and ready to assemble first thing next morning...
Day two:
The kit we bought was first gen tensioner. I paid to have the job done last time and was told it was more because of the timing group upgrade... So I now understand what that was about. The only part that changed was the tensioner so we were able to locate one at O'Reilly's. Now with all the correct parts on to reassembly! The offending water pump is located under several layers of stuff and the first to go back on. Everything was much better going on than coming off until the actual belt... Holy cow! Big thick belt around crank, WP, idler, two cam pulleys and the tensioner... The additional 1/64th of an inch excess they allow for install did not seem adequate... After learning a few new cuss words I decided to seek advice from the oracle. Turned out timing belt trick turned up a YouTube cheat. So I loosened the idler and that tilted slightly to allow the belt to just barely slip over the tensioner. The cam pulleys were tricky but not too bad and there was plenty of info on how to set them properly. Once the belt was on the idler could be retorqued and the tensioner set. Two rounds of the crank shaft and a quick check for correct timing and proper tension and everything else goes back on.
It is every bit as tight as an X but the snail mount is replaced with massive cast piece with an integral PS pump hanger. Unlike the X all must come off for belt access. The engine must be jacked as high as possible just to remove these items. That also explained the damage done the last time the job was done! I am glad to have this done but I would never grip over any X1/9 maintenance! Yikes! What a task! Happily it is my last PT belt change!!!
Regards
