How to: Change Timing Belt

ChileanKJ · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2009 11:38 am

I didn't find a how to, so I made this

Labor Time: 4 hours or less
Tools:
Sockets: 7mm, 10mm, 13mm and 17mm
Spanners: 7mm, adjustable
Six Pack

We will start releasing the accesory belt tensioner, and taking out the accesory belt, then release the crossmember over the radiator four 10mm screws, two screws at the left and two at the right

then you have to release two 10mm screws at the sides of the radiator shroud, now you have to take out the viscous, I used the adjustable spanner and a 15mm spanner, put one end of the 15 on one of the holes and the other end on the hole of the hook to lift the engine, this stops the idler and with the adjustable you release the viscous and fan together, now you have to take the shroud and the fan together, the shroud has a rubber band on top and is located under the crossmember, so you have to lift the cross member a little to take out the shroud from under the crossmember, then take out the shroud and the fan with the viscous.

Now take out the steering pump pulley tree 10mm screws, I used a phillips on the holes to stop the pump, when the pulley is out, one 17mm to take the tensor out.

You should have something like this:

Now take the idlers out and the engine damper four 10mm screws,

and take the fan idler, these are four 13mm screws tree up and one inside, you have to put your socket in the hole of the idler look:

And start taking the 17, 7mm screws from the engine cover, use a socket and a spanner for the one on the side of the alternator

this is the timing belt

and this is the first thing yo have to do, align the camshaft marks on top of the cylinder cover (in the following image are off by one teeth), and the engine mark should be at 2 o'clock, if not turn the engine (I used an adjustable spanner) and align the top marks and the engine mark at 2 o'clock,

Now you are ready to take the tensor out and change the belt, tensioner, wp or whatever you want to change.

Finally put the new belt and tensioner, make sure of the alignment, I made my own tensioner adjuster two holes 18mm between and two screws, solder and done

Adjust the tensioner and turn the engine using the spanner, two turns of the engine will take the align marks to the original position, make shure the aligment marks are ok, if so you can turn on you engine to test.

now just reassemble backwards.

and take another beer.

unwritten · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2009 12:29 pm

Nice writeup! Thanks for the contribution!

Joe Romas · **Posted:** Sun Aug 02, 2009 1:26 pm

You started with a Jeep and ended up with a Land Rover :lol:

Good write up.

Joe

ChileanKJ · **Posted:** Mon Aug 03, 2009 4:08 pm

Joe Romas wrote:

You started with a Jeep and ended up with a Land Rover :lol:

Good write up.

Joe

I have a good hammer :lol:

darinb · **Posted:** Thu Feb 25, 2010 7:55 pm

Sorry i know this is a noob question... but are the two large pulleys (the one's connected to the camshaft I think) the only one's that have to be aligned the exact way they were originally?

When putting the belt back on, would I start at those and work my way down? I am at 83,000 miles so I am trying to get all my ducks in a row.

ChileanKJ · **Posted:** Fri Feb 26, 2010 5:04 pm

darinb wrote:

Sorry i know this is a noob question... but are the two large pulleys (the one's connected to the camshaft I think) the only one's that have to be aligned the exact way they were originally?

When putting the belt back on, would I start at those and work my way down? I am at 83,000 miles so I am trying to get all my ducks in a row.

You have to align, the two large pulleys and the one on the crankshaft, these three must be aligned.

darinb · **Posted:** Sun Feb 28, 2010 9:50 pm

Thanks for the help. I hope you are ok since it looks like you are in Chile.

ChileanKJ · **Posted:** Mon Mar 01, 2010 11:21 am

Thanks, me and my family are ok, we have an aunt missing in Concepcion, and we have no power neither telephony, only cel phones are working from time to time, I have our rv's generator connected to the house to keep refrigerators working, I'm the only one with power so all my neighbors are taking his frozen foods to our house, I have 3G internet working. There is a lot of damage on the north part of Santiago, but 200 mile to the south was devastated, TV images and are really impressive.

Thanks for your concerns

Claudio

darinb · **Posted:** Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:08 am

Sounds like a scary experience, I am glad to hear you are ok.

darinb · **Posted:** Sat Apr 10, 2010 9:59 am

Here is the link to the Service Manual Timing intructions too if anyone else needs it:

http://www.digitalmagic.us/2005JeepKJTiming.pdf

darinb · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 1:16 pm

I'm seriously having trouble mustering up the courage to do the timing belt myself. I am afraid of getting the alignment wrong.

I am also afraid to take it to the dealership because when i called to get a quote they said "I don't think the CRD has a timing belt..... Oh, well I guess it does?!?!"

Can somebody offer some words of encouragement or advice?

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Thu May 27, 2010 4:45 pm

Best suggestion I have is talk to GreenDieselEngineering - sounds like they have lots of experience and will even loan out the factory alignment tools.
second comment is check around for a shops that works on Cummins/Sprinters - at least they speak Diesel - but you'll still probably be the only CRD.

your questions sound like you've never changed any timing belt before?

you should probably try to find someone local who's done some engine work. just as support if nothing else.

darinb · **Posted:** Sat May 29, 2010 9:13 pm

You are right I have never done a timing belt. I have done some other engine work but nothing as critical as the timing belt. Is ours similar to those in gas engines? I have a friend who works on gas cars.

ATXKJ · **Posted:** Sat May 29, 2010 10:44 pm

It's similar - but a couple of concerns - alignment has to be right - the valves/pistons are interference - they'll hit (should only break the rocker arms - but still not good)

I don't think the 2.8l has alignment marks (ChileanKJ's is an 04 - that should be 2.5L)

the 2.8 depends on the special tools to hold the crank and cams in position,
with those - I think it's easy -
but call GDE - they've done it before and can give you details, I'm just reading posts and replaying what I've read.

reka12 · **Posted:** Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:00 pm

When doing this, can't you just mark the two cams and crank positions, say with a permanent marker or awl before taking the old belt off? As long as it is back in the original position, it should be right, correct? I never have changed a timing belt so if this is a dumb question, you won't hurt my feelings!

kadetklapp · **Posted:** Wed Sep 22, 2010 3:19 pm

ATXKJ wrote:

Best suggestion I have is talk to GreenDieselEngineering - sounds like they have lots of experience and will even loan out the factory alignment tools.
second comment is check around for a shops that works on Cummins/Sprinters - at least they speak Diesel - but you'll still probably be the only CRD.

your questions sound like you've never changed any timing belt before?

you should probably try to find someone local who's done some engine work. just as support if nothing else.

Interesting you brought up Sprinter shops. Scheid Diesel in lafayette told me they will not change a timing belt on a CRD because they don't have the tools, but also because they were told at "sprinter school" that the CRD is a "throw-away engine" and not ment to be serviced in that fashion :5SHOTS:

tvine · **Posted:** Sat Nov 06, 2010 11:06 am

Is there any issue with the cams wanting to rotate slightly when the belt is removed. Other engines I have changed timing belts on required a clamp to be placed between the cam pulleys to lock them in place. It looks like it would not be too tough to fabricate one to go between the pulleys on the CRD.

orionpps · **Joined:** Wed Sep 08, 2010 4:31 pm **Posts:** 54

I've never replace a timing belt..so I may be asking some stupid questions..why cant you just remove the timing belt cover and just put the new belt on?? when the motor stops shouldn't everything be aligned..take the old belt of and put the new one on?? the service manuals says you need special locking tools. I'm looking to do this soon as I have 88k on my ride...I see the marks on the the sprockets but what do you match these up to??

timsvulcan · **Joined:** Fri Jul 02, 2010 6:29 pm **Posts:** 14

The mark's don't line up with anything. The best cheap way to lock the cam sprockets is to use metal strapping with holes drilled in it fashion these in a x shape with the left end of one on the top of one sprocket and the right end on the bottom of the other sprocket. It takes 2 straps (can buy these at any hardware store) then bolt them through the holes in the cam. This way the cam absolutely cannot move.

DieselsRule · **Posted:** Mon Nov 15, 2010 8:42 pm

darinb wrote:

I'm seriously having trouble mustering up the courage to do the timing belt myself. I am afraid of getting the alignment wrong.

I am also afraid to take it to the dealership because when i called to get a quote they said "I don't think the CRD has a timing belt..... Oh, well I guess it does?!?!"

Can somebody offer some words of encouragement or advice?

I'm in the process today of changing the timing belt and water pump. Here are some changes I've found for the North American 2.8L:
Drill out the pop rivets holding the washer fluid yellow tab and the two holding the hood release bracket to the cross memmber. Be careful drilling as there are radiators right behind!

I could not get the large nut on the fan coupler to budge. I even bent a 3/8" drift pin trying to hold the pulley! I cut a piece out of the bottom or the radiator shroud to pass by the coupler hub, with blade removed from hub, jerked the#@%& shroud out of there for room to work, put a chain wrench on the pulley, adjustable wrench on big nut, two foot of pipe on wrench handle, pulled with all my might and finally got the #$%& off!

Serpentine belt idlers and timing belt idlers have left hand thread bolts(broke one finding out...). Tensioners are right hand.
Set crankshaft mark to 3:00, injector pump has notch in base that must line up with raised mark right under the bolt head at 9:00. (If it doesn't, crank another turn). You will need a mirror to see this. I used chalk to mark the camshaft pulley locations to upper housing, straight up.(the camshaft mark on pulley is not used) At this point I released the timing belt tensioner bolt and everything stayed in place! It will be a breeze to reassemble.haha

I bought a $5.00 adjustable pin spanner at the lumber yard (used for removing sanding disc hubs). The pins were a little large so I drilled the new tensioner to match.

I'm working on getting the water pump off and this is a real nightmare! I have no idea what some of the things are I have removed but I think I'm getting close to it. To remove the air filter box, remove cover and filter, compress the accordion tube on the front and slide a piece of cardboard between it and the box to keep it out of the hole, grab the box by the sides and pull straight up. The rubber mounts will release the box, any mounts that come up with the box should be reinstalled in the inner steel panel before reassembly.
Undo lots of hoses, remove the pump thingy above the water pump, unplug connectors.
Oh, I see a thingy on the side of the block above the water pump that has been leaking! I wondered where the coolant was going...
Now if I can just figure out how to undo the four flange bolts that hold the pump to the block...
Well, I started at 9:00 AM and worked til 4:00 PM and that's as far as I've got! Maybe tomorrow will bring success!
I can only imagine the trouble I would be in if I had taken this to the stealer....

6 hours on Tuesday and I'm finished. 15 hours total and no water pump installed! I found out you have to remove camshaft sprockets, etc. and back plate to get to water pump. The camshafts and injector pump allignment would not hold position while installing the belt. I finally wound some wire through the sprockets and got them to hold.

I'll never do this again. Oh, did I mention the new belt was incredibly tight and I worked almost two hours just getting it on.....

How to: Change Timing Belt

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