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Yes, you can replace balance belts without the £400 porsche tool !

fossil

New member
It can be done for all those scaredy cats out there.

Fitstly print off the cam/balance belt plan Clarkes Garage, set everything to TDC and carefully mark and record datum marks on pulleys, I made some notches in the plastic cover to help with this.

If you have the auto adjuster on the cambelt (post '87) you can't go wrong setting the cambelt but make sure everything is free on the adjuster after you've taken it off.

Use a ruler across top left nut and centre bolt on the auto adjuster to achieve 2cm free play in the new balance belt on rebuild.(mine had 2.5cm prior to stripping)
I know it is right because as everyone knows if the belt is too tight it whines, mine whined very slightly on initial start but went away quite quickly. You can actually feel the difference in engine smoothness and noise reduction since I changed the belts.

I must add I've had over 20 years mechanics experience and just refuse to believe that you need a £400 tool just to set a belt tension.
 

ORIGINAL: fossil

refuse to believe that you need a £400 tool just to set a belt tension.

You're right, you don't NEED a tool to set the tension but in my dozen or so years in the club all the failures after a belt change have not used a tool of any kind. Many Indies who perform many changes every week on 944s can set the tension by feel and will not have a problem. It is the well meaning DIYer who has not changed a 944 belt before that can run into trouble, the balance belt runs much, much looser than belts on other cars and it is easy to set it too tight.

The club has a genuine tool it can lend out to members and there are also a couple of cheap aftermarket tools (Krikit and Arnworxx) that work with the 944
 
I wonder how many years experience there was in Porsche?

The two independants I know both have the proper tool...

I had a similar method explained to me at a club meeting... the same chap then went onto tell me how he had to replace two valves after a snapped cambelt.

You don't need a £400 tool, PCGB membership and I think it is about £20 of postage (not even that if it happnes to be convenient to collect etc..) and yet still do the job by the book.

Each to there own, it is your choice...
 

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