Setting the correct tension on the Timing belt

[Firebladepully]

Hi Guys,

After some much needed advice/tips to what seems to be a black art so far.

I have fitted a new complete Dayco timing belt kit with the hydraulic damper unit, new tensioner stud and meyle HD all metal water pump to my 2002 Golf GT TDI 1.9 PD ASZ.

I have followed procedures in locking the timing at TDC etc all fine. It is when I come to trying to set the tension, I feel like something is not right.

I turn the eccentric tensioner anti-clockwise until the pointer is at point A, then remove the locking clip off the hydraulic damper unit, then proceed to slowly turn the tensioner clockwise until I get a 4 mm gap between the tensioner back bracket and the hydraulic damper body. Tighten everything up, remove the locking kit, turn the motor round a couple of times back to TDC and check.

The belt between crank pulley to idler and idler to tensioner pulley seems very tight, guitar string twang tight. The gap between hydraulic damper and tensioner back bracket is less than 4mm.
Is this expected to happen? Is that kind of tightness ok? It just seems far too tight as belts I have done on other diesels I have gone by torqueing the belt tensioner and the old 45 degree twist on the belt test on longest run.

Also the tensioner adjustment pointer does not seem to be moving that far from point A when I get this 4mm gap. If I move this adjuster clockwise more towards point B and place this pointer so it looks similar to the one in the photo of the Haynes instructions, the belt tightness seems more acceptable, but have a 8mm+ gap.

I Have redone the above procedure of setting the 4mm gap between the tensioner back plate and hydraulic damper body. I gave a generous 4mm gap too.
To me this still isn't sounding right, so recorded a brief vid clip of it running. What are your opinions?

http://vid106.photob...70/IMG_2641.mp4

Cheers,
Paul




any help/advice greatly appreciated as I wouldn't want the belt snapping if too tight.

Thanks,

Paul

[Crasher]

The design changed in mid 2002 from hydraulic to the MUCH easier friction adjustment, the hydraulic system is a pain to set up, they drive me potty getting that gap!

Always perform adjustment work on toothed belts only on cold engines

Loosen securing bolts -1- of camshaft pulley until the camshaft pulley can be moved within the elongated holes

Turn camshaft pulley clockwise -direction of arrow- in elongated holes onto stop

Now carefully turn eccentric clockwise with pin wrench 3387 until eccentric lug is located directly before limit stop -B-

Fit toothed belt on camshaft belt pulley, tensioning roller, crankshaft belt pulley and finally on coolant pump belt pulley

Install toothed belt tensioning device

Turn eccentric using pin wrench -3387- anti-clockwise (lug of eccentric moves in direction of limit stop -A-) until locking plate -T10008- can be pulled out without resistance and dimension -a- is less than 4 mm

Tension toothed belt by releasing force of tensioning device clockwise (lug of eccentric thereby moves in direction of limit stop -B-) until measurement -a- is reached

Specification -a-: 4 ± 1 mm

Dimension -a- is reduced when the tensioning roller securing nut is tightened. Therefore, adjust generously using Ø 4 mm drill bit

Hold tensioning roller in this position and tighten tensioning roller securing nut as follows: 20 Nm and 45° (1/8 turn) further

Tighten bolts -1- of camshaft toothed belt pulley to 25 Nm.

Remove locking pin -3359- and crankshaft stop -T10050-

Turn crankshaft two rotations in engine direction of rotation and set again to TDC no. 1 cylinder

When doing this, the crankshaft stop pin must engage in the sealing flange whilst turning

If the crankshaft is turned past TDC no. 1 cylinder and the crankshaft stop could not engage in the sealing flange, turn the crankshaft back 1/4 turn so that the crankshaft can again be turned in engine direction of rotation to allow it to be set to TDC no. 1 cylinder. Making corrections against engine direction of rotation in order to insert the crankshaft stop is not permissible

Loosen securing bolts -1- of camshaft pulley

Turn crankshaft slightly against engine direction of rotation until the pin of the crankshaft stop is positioned just before the hole in the sealing flange -arrow-

Now turn crankshaft in engine direction of rotation until crankshaft stop pin engages in sealing flange whilst turning

Tighten securing bolts of camshaft belt pulley to 25 Nm

Remove locking pin -3359- and crankshaft stop -T10050-.

Turn crankshaft 2 rotations in engine direction of rotation until crankshaft is set to TDC No. 1 cylinder again

When doing this, the pin of the crankshaft stop must engage in the sealing flange from the rotational movement

If the crankshaft is turned past TDC no. 1 cylinder and the crankshaft stop could not engage in the sealing flange, turn the crankshaft back 1/4 turn so that the crankshaft can again be turned in engine direction of rotation to allow it to be set to TDC no. 1 cylinder. Making corrections against engine direction of rotation in order to insert the crankshaft stop is not permissible

Repeat check

[Firebladepully]

Thanks for that Crasher. That is the exact procedure I followed. It's that wowl when the engine is running that is concerning me. Does that sound normal? I have read somewhere that the Dayco belt can run nosier than normal, whether this is the case I have no idea.
Thanks,
Paul

[zollaf]

it does sound a bit whiny. never known a dayco belt be noisy and i have fitted hundreds of them.

[Crasher]

Dayco tend to be quieter than all the others as they have a special coating on them. The Dayco KTB342 kit uses their belt 94885 which has the coating and very quiet in my experience. You did observe the DOR didn't you?

[zollaf]

DOR ?
do it right ?

[Doctle Odd]

DOR ?
do it right ?

Thought DOR was day of rest, hard to apply Sunday to a belt tensioner tho

[Crasher]

Direction Of Rotation, it goes together with RTFI.

[Col]

Some feedback from me.

I've just carried out a cambelt, tensioner, idler and water pump change on the Wifes 2001 ASZ engined Golf.

First things first. On a Golf this is a horrible job, you have to work round an engine mounting that does not come out or didn't with me raising and lowering the engine as far as I dared. I've read that it does come out but for me it only came out once the water pump and damper were removed. So, if you have little experience this is NOT the best job to learn on. My advice, any front wheel drive VAG group car, get a garage to do it. On an A4, A6 or Passat it is a doddle as you can create plenty of room and have no engine mounting that gets in the way.

The car in question (the 2001 Golf) has the earlier dampered tensioner set up that you need to set a gap of 4mm +/- 1mm between the upper edge of the damper body and the arm that extends out from the tensioner.

I took two attempts at this, this time (I've done this type of belt once before and it took more than two attempts) my method is...

1, Apply tension until the little peg can easily be pulled out of the damper, at this point the gap will be 3mm or less.
2, Slowly release tension a tiny tiny bit at a time until you get the 4mm, then lock the tensioner.

Upon tightening the gap went down to about 3.5mm which for me was / is good enough!


[edit]

Test run and a bit of belt noise / howl. Also got the syncro angle to 0.0 / 0.6

I used a Gates powergrip kit.

I'm going to leave it a day or two and see if it quietens down.

[Crasher]

One of the “to do” things on my bucket list is “murder the ******* that designed the PQ34 platform engine mount bracket”, I mean WHAT possessed the ****? It was even worse with the hydraulic dampers used on the early AJM 115PS engine and that is what you have which confuses me, an ASZ should not have that as it was discontinued for production starting January 1^st 2000.