The AUSubaru.com.au Forums

Hey all,

Okay, so I decided to try replacing the cam belt tensioners myself. First hiccup...

The manual says move the flywheel to top centre and insert a "suitable" instrument to hold it while you remove a 107nm bolt on the crank pulley! I had a good look, and I really can't see how you can attach anything to the flywheel to stop it from rotating. What do you guys normally do?

Since it's the drivers side tensioner that's squealing, I've taken one side of the cover off, and there's just enough room to remove the tensioner... but it would be nice to know how to get the full cover off so I can do it the less dodgy way. Now hopefully I can just replace the bearing without having to buy a whole new cam belt kit.

Cheers,
Dave

I'd remove the crank pulley bolt first then consider setting up the timing marks after the covers are all off. You can put the bolt back in and turn the crank after it's all apart. Now to remove the bolt you can do it a few ways.. I have Powerbar from ABW (http://www.privatebrandtools.com/products/70865.jpg) that works a treat but I'm doing them many times a year or you can use the long pipe and breaker bar on the chassis rail method, which requires turning the key/starter motor and standing way back If you do this make sure the pipe is sitting on the LHS rail first or it will find it's way there very quickly and can make a spectacular mess

You could try putting the box in its highest gear and HB plus block the wheels .

discopotato03 wrote:You could try putting the box in its highest gear and HB plus block the wheels .

Good point block/chock the wheels and putting in gear will bind things up so just remember to press the clutch and take it out of gear once you've got it all back together.

if your talking about loosening the crankshaft pulley which i think you are i was let in on a little trick by a mate all be it not so safe basically get your breaker bar and wedge it on the nut and down to the floor and just crank the engine over.... never had a problem getting the pulley off that way...

That Powerbar is something else isn't it! Hard to believe something so simple could cost so much, um I mean ...work the way it does.

For safety sake of the radiator , remove it first !

I use a 22mm socket with standard half inch drive 450 or 600mm handle, and as theysay above LHS as in dizzy side, battery side rail, but I also slide the breaker bar into the tow hook just under the rail to reduce hazards, much like a tailshaft loop on hi po cars !

It looks like I'm going to get away with replacing the tensioner without removing the middle cover... but it's good to know how to remove the pulley for when the other side goes.

I think I'd prefer locking everything up and just using my 600mm jack handle. Knowing me, using the starter motor would just result in something going through the wall of my shed.

steptoe wrote:That Powerbar is something else isn't it! Hard to believe something so simple could cost so much, um I mean ...work the way it does.

For sure they aren't cheap.. I think mine was $115 new but worth every cent of it. I do however use it just about everyday.

Dave72 wrote:It looks like I'm going to get away with replacing the tensioner without removing the middle cover... but it's good to know how to remove the pulley for when the other side goes.

I think I'd prefer locking everything up and just using my 600mm jack handle. Knowing me, using the starter motor would just result in something going through the wall of my shed.

hehehe.. yes that's what I was thinking could happen

Good to see you got sorted.. why are you just replacing the tensioners and not the belts?

Well your call but for the work involved I'd be doing all the tensioners and idlers at the same time unless your struggling to feed yourself .
From memory there is a tool Subaru had to lock the flywheel through the hole where you see the cam timing marks .
If you were careful you could probably make one up out of a old piece of ring gear and the middle teeth ground off it , you only need one tooth either end of a piece of ring gear thats cut to just a tad less than the length of the hole in the top of the flywheel housing .

If you are going to do it with a socket + ratchet or breaker bar disable the ignition system so the engine can't fire and start up .
Also you only jog the starter switch very briefly .

A .

I never had any problems using the socket/starter trick.
but make sure you use loctite on the nut when you replace it, i used a torque wrench to tighten mine but it still came unscrewed a couple of times. if the bolt had not jammed in the works I would be in big trouble.

good point from Disco, and I always use a dob of silsatic to hold bolt at point I left it