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New timing belt rubbing

10K views 28 replies 19 participants last post by  lilfocusfreak 
#1 ·
So I've got a question long story short timing belt broke on car and had head rebuilt and timing belt replaced.

Now to my question,

I pulled off my ps motor mount "had horrible vibration" and I think this is why.


So since I had the mount out figured id take the timing belt cover off to have a look. Here's some pictures and concerns. It appears to be rubbing , is it normal for the belt to be so far to the outside ?




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#3 ·
I had the same problem in my zx2 escort it had the vct on the exhaust cam. all i did was get everything lined up timing wise and loosened the t belt tensioner and slid the belt back to where it should be, tighened tensioner back and never had another bit of problem out of it. belt stayed on for another 160k miles. gotta love non interference motors. trans ended up goin out at 289k. wife said she was tired of looking at it.
 
#5 ·
I didn't do the work. So I'm not sure if the tens are new or not.

And about it being to tight or too lose. I'm not sure how tight the belts suppose to be.. didn't feel it before they replaced it. I don't think its been moving farther outside it just caught my eye when there's still like a half inch of room on the pullys for the belt to be that close to the outter edge

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#8 ·
no it is not supposed to b that far out it looks like when they put it on they did not put it far enogh back on the gears. u line up the split on the tab with the line on the base of the tensioner(it will make sense when u look at it) i beleive the torque for the tensioner is around 17 flbs. did they put on a new tensioner when they changed the belt? if not i would suggest putting a newe tensioner on it. learned by experience i did not change tensioner and when the exhaust cam jumped it took out two pistons and all 8 exhaust valves!
 
#10 ·
Your tensioner is clearly not tensioned right. Take it back to the shop and have them re- time and retension it. I'd be severely pissed, cause that pointer is supposed to be in the window at all times. That's why the belt moved to the outside. I wouldn't recommend just loosening it and re tension it like that since it is a interference motor. Make sure you re time it to ensure that it is in time when you re-tension it. Next time drive down to Texas and we'll do it for ya, we've done it numerous times already lol
 
#16 ·
Your tensioner is clearly not tensioned right. Take it back to the shop and have them re- time and retension it. I'd be severely pissed, cause that pointer is supposed to be in the window at all times. That's why the belt moved to the outside. I wouldn't recommend just loosening it and re tension it like that since it is a interference motor. Make sure you re time it to ensure that it is in time when you re-tension it. Next time drive down to Texas and we'll do it for ya, we've done it numerous times already lol
^^this. The belt will walk off as it is doing when the tensioner is not set correctly
 
#12 ·
it is normal for the belt to be a little on the left side but not far enough to where it rides on the actually outside. most shops just replace the belt, they dont do the whole kit unless you ask them to! so im pretty sure the tensioner need to be replaces or tightened

if it rubbed that bad i would even ask the to do the belt again! you dont know the stress it made, might snap after a few thousand miles
 
#14 ·
Meaning?

Is the pointer okay there?
Turning the engine backwards bad thing?

The car runs great besides the vibration which I'm assuming is the motor mount.

No check engine like for vct

I'm just trying to figure out should I even mess with the belt or tens.

I won't be taking it back to the shop to do anythi.ng seeing how it was gfs family member if I have to do anything id rather do it myself at this point.



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#19 ·
cam bearing wont cause this. Setting the tensioner incorrectly will. The belt will find its own natural resting space on the cam gears, it may not always be centered. If the belt is so far off the edge it is rubbing, then this is not the correct way. At this point it is in your best interest to retime your engine and tension the tensioner correctly. If the idler pulley for the timing belt has not been replaced, this is a good time to do this as well
 
#20 ·
if that belt has been rubbing i'd replace it asap. i'm in the middle of a timing belt nightmare right now. doing an engine overhaul as we speak because of it. Gates makes a kit you can buy on rockauto.com that includes belt, tensioner, pully. i want to say it's about $70 but can't remember exactly. i believe the crankshaft pully is basically the only thing that keeps the belt from falling off completely. it sounds to me like you might have a bit too much slack if the belt is wondering, (because of old worn tensioner, as stated) this could also lead to your cam gears slipping out of time
 
#23 ·
Yup just plain ol belt walk. It won't do to much but rub the hell out of the outside edge of the belt. And shorten the life of the belt like to 55-65K miles as oppose to the 100K that it can handle.

But yes. If you re-adjust the tension, that will help "walk" the belt back the other way. And it should stay there.

Adjusting the tensioner while the belt is on may or may not help. Sometimes the belt is too tight to move it incrementally. But you can try that. Just be careful not to pass the windown to much. too loose and yes, it can be catastrophic.

-Ray-
 
#24 ·
I've done a lot of these t-belts.
1. The tensioner is not adjusted correctly......at all, not even close. Pointer goes inside the little wrench on the tensioner.
2. The belt is toast. Replace it.
3. Drop me an pm with your email address and I'll send you the section 303 manual from Ford on how to do this PROPERLY.
4. If a shop did this, take it back.
5. Hopefully you had your water pump changed when the belt was changed.
 
#25 ·
The belt will ride on the edge when you don't have enough tension; if you have too much tension it will rub against the head.

You might have set the tension level correctly in the begging but I don't think you locked the tension into the holder slot in the black plat when you applied tension. See how the tension tab fits into the square slot in the black plate.



This video may help too - http://youtu.be/d4IgVvfovhA
 
#27 ·
Tight = walk out
Loose = walk in

Which is opposite of what revlimit is saying.
Least far as I've ever seen.


I still feel that adding the lower pulley helps keep the belt aligned better. I've had less problems once I installed it.
But I'm still running a guided idler pulley as a backup option. Mine's just a problem car though ...
 
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