Me and a friend from work are going to do the full belt install on my car, including the drive belts, timing belt, and water pump. Anyone have any suggestions we should know about before getting started, or an estimate of how much time this may take?

 

If it is your first time, it will probably take you around 5-6 hours since a competent mechanic can do it in about 4 hours. I have not done one myself, so I can't really give you any good pointers.

 

I'm assuming that you are talkin about G3 tegs and i'm also assuming you are talking about power steering, alternator, and ac belts by the drive belts.

I haven't replaced the timing belt and water pump on my car so i'll just explain some tips to replacing all the auxiliary belts.

First, power steering belt is a piece of cake. all you have to do is remove the ps pump from the bracket. you don't have to disconnect the hose on ps pump. just put the ps pump aside and keep working.

you have to remove 2 bolts from the lower left engine mount to drop the engine a bit and give you a space to slip the lower part of the ac belt in. you'll know what i'm talking about once you start working on your car.

Now for the alternator belt, you might have to remove the alternator from its bracket completely or you might be able to put a new belt on by simply loosening the adjusting nut on the top of the alternator.

After putting all the belts, make sure you give them enough tension so that none of them will be slipping and making annoying squeeking sound.

Use the adjusting bolt next to the tensioner pully for the AC belt. Use the butterfly-shaped nut on the top of the PS pump for the PS belt. Now for the alternator belt,what i did is stuck a metal bar (I used a really long 3/8 extension) between the alternator and the bracket with the adjusting nut loosened and pulled the bar towards the engine to give it some leverage. While you are pulling the bar and tightening the belt, have someone else to tighten the adjusting bolt. Maybe there's a better way to do it but that's just what i did.

Make sure you tighten all the belts so that none of them have no more than 5-6mm of slack.

I know this is sort of confusing... eh i wish i could explain things better. Hope this helps.

 

I already can see what you mean Ricky, we already figured we would have to loosen a few engine mounts to give us some more room... any other tips or suggestions concerning the waterpump/timing belt?

 

I just finished replacing my timing belt and water pump today. This was my first time. I would say it might take longer than 5 or 6 hours. The biggest problem I ran into was getting the crank pully bolt off. That was a serious pain. My 550ft/lb impact wrench wouldnt touch it. I broke several extentions and sockets using the breaker bar as well.

eventually I had to use an acetalyne cutting torch to heat the bolt up and break it loose.

Getting the belt on just right was a bit of a pain as well. You have to line up the crank and the cam gears just right. They kept turning on me as I tried to put the belt on. And yes you do have to take off the side engine mount to get the timing belt on. You might have better luck taking the mount off after the auxiliary belts are off.