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Problems with timing belt tension, injection pump timing and other jobs...
Hello everyone, I hope you all had a good Christmas.
I have been having a nightmare with my car over the seasonal break! I decided to use some of the time off to replace my water pump and timing belt / tensioner since they have been outstanding jobs for quite a while.
To cut a long story short I was able to follow Mr Haynes and replace the water pump, cam belt and cam belt tensioner. I have to say that the instructions given to lock the flywheel in place are pretty terrible. The hole is on the front of the engine below the pas pump (on the diesel version). They suggest using a 6.74mm drill bit to lock the flywheel. Which is really helpful (sic). I used a 6.5mm drill bit given that the timing pin set is 250 quid.
I found that it is very easy indeed to get the injection pump one tooth out, despite locking the gear in place with bolts as instructed. I managed to get the cam belt on correctly and using the two 6.5mm drill bits verified that the valve timing was correct.
The engine was difficult to start and gave off a serious plume of diesel smoke to the neighbourhood! I concluded that the injection pump timing must have been affected by my replacement of the cam belt. I therefore invested in a guage kit to set the injection pump timing.
Today I set the injection pump timing with the kit and the car started beautifully straightaway and roared nicely when I pressed the accelerator to the floor. As soon as I moved off, it started making an almighty racket. When I turned the steering wheel, particularly to the left it shook and make a strange knocking noise. Now when I start it, even without driving it and with the steering in the straight ahead position it makes a clackety noise. If I turn the steering wheel it gets a lot worse.
The only thing I can think of is the tension of the cam belt - I can't be sure it is right since I don't have the Rover tool. it seems as if the engine was fine until I put a load on it. It occured to me that perhaps I had not tightened up the cam gear bolts enough, but they were very tight..
One other thing.. In the middle of doing all that I took it out for a run (at the time when I realised the injection pump timing was out). I got back and looked under the bonnet and found that the lift pump was only being held in place by it's pipes! Fortunately the bolts were still sitting on the engine and I secured the pump in place. I have no idea how they came loose.
I'm utterly stumped, it would appear that today I got everything spot on, and it stayed like that until a load (turning the steering wheel) was placed on the engine, but why is it worse on the left than on the right? I think I'll double check the torque of the cam gear bolts tomorrow.
Finally, does anyone have a decent rule of thumb for setting the tension on a new belt. I have used the first bolt hole for the tensioner. I read on a previous thread that someone else had a similar situation where he found that a new belt was quite slack on the first hole. My gut feeling is that it is too slack. In fact I found that the results from the guage in the injection pump varied unpredictably when the cam shaft was locked (as opposed to the flywheel). I tried changing the cam belt tension to correct these results with the limited success that slacker is better up to a point. I still have no idea if my tension is right or not though...
Any ideas, or suggestions would be very welcome indeed!
Cheers,
Jon
I have been having a nightmare with my car over the seasonal break! I decided to use some of the time off to replace my water pump and timing belt / tensioner since they have been outstanding jobs for quite a while.
To cut a long story short I was able to follow Mr Haynes and replace the water pump, cam belt and cam belt tensioner. I have to say that the instructions given to lock the flywheel in place are pretty terrible. The hole is on the front of the engine below the pas pump (on the diesel version). They suggest using a 6.74mm drill bit to lock the flywheel. Which is really helpful (sic). I used a 6.5mm drill bit given that the timing pin set is 250 quid.
I found that it is very easy indeed to get the injection pump one tooth out, despite locking the gear in place with bolts as instructed. I managed to get the cam belt on correctly and using the two 6.5mm drill bits verified that the valve timing was correct.
The engine was difficult to start and gave off a serious plume of diesel smoke to the neighbourhood! I concluded that the injection pump timing must have been affected by my replacement of the cam belt. I therefore invested in a guage kit to set the injection pump timing.
Today I set the injection pump timing with the kit and the car started beautifully straightaway and roared nicely when I pressed the accelerator to the floor. As soon as I moved off, it started making an almighty racket. When I turned the steering wheel, particularly to the left it shook and make a strange knocking noise. Now when I start it, even without driving it and with the steering in the straight ahead position it makes a clackety noise. If I turn the steering wheel it gets a lot worse.
The only thing I can think of is the tension of the cam belt - I can't be sure it is right since I don't have the Rover tool. it seems as if the engine was fine until I put a load on it. It occured to me that perhaps I had not tightened up the cam gear bolts enough, but they were very tight..
One other thing.. In the middle of doing all that I took it out for a run (at the time when I realised the injection pump timing was out). I got back and looked under the bonnet and found that the lift pump was only being held in place by it's pipes! Fortunately the bolts were still sitting on the engine and I secured the pump in place. I have no idea how they came loose.
I'm utterly stumped, it would appear that today I got everything spot on, and it stayed like that until a load (turning the steering wheel) was placed on the engine, but why is it worse on the left than on the right? I think I'll double check the torque of the cam gear bolts tomorrow.
Finally, does anyone have a decent rule of thumb for setting the tension on a new belt. I have used the first bolt hole for the tensioner. I read on a previous thread that someone else had a similar situation where he found that a new belt was quite slack on the first hole. My gut feeling is that it is too slack. In fact I found that the results from the guage in the injection pump varied unpredictably when the cam shaft was locked (as opposed to the flywheel). I tried changing the cam belt tension to correct these results with the limited success that slacker is better up to a point. I still have no idea if my tension is right or not though...
Any ideas, or suggestions would be very welcome indeed!
Cheers,
Jon
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