Timing and balancer belt + tensioner parts in Victoria?

[Airwick]

Sooo, I did my oil change today and decided to poke around a bit and took the timing belt cover off...

Turns out I've been driving around with a busted balancing belt tensioner for a couple of months. Retrospectively I know what day it happened: we were driving on some really rough logging roads so I didn't hear it happen and didn't notice the increased vibration (I thought it felt a bit different later on driving on the highway but didn't think much of it and we had been shaken up all day anyways so I thought my judgment was clouded...)

Anyways, it's pretty lucky overall as it doesn't look like there is any permanent damage (read the thread about driving around without the balancing belt) and the timing belt could have easily snapped: there are 2 slits in it where balls from the tensioner bearing were squeezed through the timing belt (can see the slight mark on the crankshaft pulley too) !

It was an interesting learning experience taking everything apart, lost a fair amount of knuckle skin and had a hard time getting the cranckshaft pulley off: no loose key for me! (The bolt wasn't too hard once I put it in 5th gear, 1st in low range wasn't helping much at first though) I think I can put it back togther

My question though is where do I get the parts in Victoria, the belts should be easy but I am not too sure about the tensioner and the crankshaft bolt (I hear it's to be used once only...) would Lordco have these and if not any suggestions?

I would really like to put it back together tomorrow...

Thanks,

EDIT: some pics

Overview:

DSC01399.JPG (394.98 KiB) Viewed 5948 times

Where one of the balls from tensioner got pushed through the timing belt:

DSC01405.JPG (328.13 KiB) Viewed 5942 times

Inside of the belt:

DSC01406.JPG (329.81 KiB) Viewed 5942 times

[yojimbo]

You should check the condition of the bottom pulley too, as they have a tendency to delaminate, and also the water pump, just becasue you are there.

[Golf Cart]

Airwick,

Rocky Mountain Imports.

John posts on the site here.

good pics

[Artacoma]

Give John a call he is in Sidney he usually has that stuff in stock, email him too if you get his voicmail , he is usually quick to respond Rocky Mountain Imports (http://www.rockymountainimports.net) phone 1-250-886-4900 .

Good luck

[Airwick]

Thanks for the input; the bottom pulley looks happy (I'm assuming you are talking about the rubber part in there) and as far as the water pump goes, I'm not sure what I am looking for but everything I can see looks good...

Lordco doesn't have these on their cheat sheet (which I suspected) and the delica wiki seems incomplete: there is only one tensioner listed, not sure which one it is and nothing for the crankshaft pulley bolt. I can get the belts but that won't help me much...

I gave John a call and fired him an email as well, it looking more and more unlikely that I will be back on the road today though...

[yojimbo]

Signs of play in the bearing, in the waterpump, its traditional to swap it out when the belts are done on their interval, as preventative maintenance.

[Airwick]

Fair enough, I'll check for bearing play, I didn't feel anything but I wasn't looking for it...
The van has just about 100K and has been in Canada for 3 years (I've had it for 1.5 years, ~85k when I got it). The belts where definitely done when it was brought over but I am not 100% sure about the water pump although everything in there looks pretty clean (i.e. new-ish) and I believe CVI did all (most?) the maintenance of this van so it's pretty save to say it was taken good care of. The belts shouldn't need to be changed yet and would be fine for a while more if it wasn't for the tensioner that gave up so this is an "out of interval" type thing.

[yojimbo]

What I'm about to post may seem a bit inflammatory, and it's not meant that way, just observations from having owned a 300 for a while, and reading he forums a lot, I don't know CVI, as I'm in the UK, so I'm not critiquing their work, these are just my thoughts on care and feeding of a 4D56T.

Unlike my previous motors, which were more robust, but less potentially long lived and reliable, the 2.5 loves preventative maintenance, do that and it will be reliable for a long time yet, fail to do so, and the issues that can occur can be fatal, or very expensive and time consuming, if the water pump fails, the head warps, if the bolt or pulley fail, same deal, plus cam belt failure damage. If the balance belt tensioner fails, same again.

Now none of these fail often, but they are known weak points, so why would you change the belts, but not spend a couple of extra bucks on a tensioner? To me, thats not looking after it. When I changed the belts on mine, at the service interval of 100k, the tensioner was fine. A while back fords Transit van here had a similar problem with it's cambelt tensioner, and folks observing the service interval for the belts found that not long after doing the belt, the tensioner bearing failed, because the load of a new belt accelerated the wear. So it's plausible that looking after it nearly killed it.

Anyway, as I said, I don't care about laying any blame anywhere, it just occurred to me recently that with the right maintenance these engines can last a long while, without it they won't, so it's false economy to not replace a few parts at the 100k time, in order to ensure that you have the best chance of seeing another 100k out of the motor, after all, very little else seems to go wrong with them, so it's not like they cost a lot in upkeep!

[FalcoColumbarius]

Well put, Yojimbo ~ they are simple machines and easy to look after rather than seeking forgiveness.

Falco.

[Airwick]

Sooo,
I got the 2 belts, 2 tensioners and a water pump coming my way from Van, however I no one seems to have the crankshaft pulley bolt in stock and it will take a week to get in; I was offered a used one though...

I went back to the engine manual and it doesn't say anything about it being a stretch bolt to be used once only, wouldn't that be something that would be specified in there?
Obviously I know what the cautious thing to do is but I am curious as to where this "use only once" rule came from, could someone point me to some literature stating that? I just happened to go through some posts on here otherwise I would have re-used the same based on the engine manual.

Thanks for your input

[yojimbo]

Folks have reported them shearing off, and on a thread on a UK forum someone removed the bolt to find a great deal of the threads stripped, it gets done up to quite a high value, I actually did mine up to about 3/4 of the book value, and used thread lock on it, I could have gone higher, but it was pretty tight, and my assistant was having trouble holding the flywheel in place with a cold chisel.

The last time I did the belts I wasn't aware of not reusing it, so it was only done up 'fairly tight' with thread lock again, and wasn't any problem.

Anyway, it wouldn't hurt to re-assemble it with that bolt and swap it out when you can, at least you can get to it fairly easily, unlike everything else!

[Airwick]

Parts just came in, hopefully I can get a good part of it done tonight.
As for the bolt, the threads on it look good so a bit less torque and some thread locker seems like a good way to go for now, and it is true that it can be accessed without dismantling everything so I can always swap it out at the next oil change or whatever.