Xantia td cambelt, not keen to repeat that job :-O

[Timmo]

Morning all,
Finally got to do the cambelt on the xant yesterday, my word, that makes the bx16v belt look like child's play!!
Glad i did as the belt was shot! Split as i pushed it of the pulleys! But My Word what a job that is, reading the threads here doesn't quite prepare you for the hours of joy that await There really should be a market for honest haynes manual, 'first remove almost Everything in the engine bay that isnt metal, regardless of its location!' 'access to the tensioner bolts is tight, you will scrape your arms on the cam pulleys a lot of times and it will hurt whilst managing one to two clicks per turn on your ratchet!' And 'if you didn't check furst to see how the tensioner spring under the engine mount went before it fires out then you are in for Hours of Almost fitting it before it fires off around engine bay Yet again to an as yet before found location in the dark oily corners! ' am sure you guys can add a Lot more!
Here's hoping i don't need to do that job again!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Yes it would be nice if there was a metal plate which you unbolted from the inner wing area which gave you unrestricted access to the cambelt end of a transversely-mounted engine. Save all that fiddling about in a space too small for fiddling about in, and all that creative thought put into how can i undo that bolt when all the tools and sockets I have are too wide!

Regards Neil

Here's one of my adapted tools....has come in useful many times in restricted space bolt removal, or tensioner winding back...its a drain plug socket with the 8mm square end ground off, leaving the hex which can be acted upon by a ring spanner and the 13mm square ready to receive sockets. Using the 1/2 to 3/8th adapter is useful for the tensioner.

[elma]

The first times the worst, by 3 or 4 you don't even think about it.

[Timmo]

I am secretly hoping there Wont be a second time Let alone 4+! Haha!

[superloopy]

Was it just the tensioner that caused the problems? How was it getting the covers off? I've got my TD 1995 to do if i ever get it sorted but it has the manual tensioner so not so bad. Did you do the peripherals ... water pump etc.

Sent from my LG-D855 using Tapatalk

[Timmo]

Yes, new tensioners, pulleys and waterpump,
Quick test this morning and wasnt right, rechecked and retimed it, smoother but a quick test still isnt right, will double check it all again after me Pasty!

Yes the spring on the tensioner under the engine mount is a good one! Learning everytime now and easier to get sorted butstill anything close to an easy job! I'd rather do the clutch than the cambelt!

[Timmo]

Well seems o forgot to tighten tbe tensioner middle bolt yesterday, timed up fine on belt side but was off on the flywheel! All redone tensioned nicely then the blooming tensioner middle bolt sheared so hadto pull it all off again to get acess to the stud and then redo it all, So now ive done it 3 times, twice more than i wanted too! gave up with just the lower mount bolt to go as it got stuck, it was raing and had been for a while and I was tired!