I'm new to Volvo's and this board but thought I'd share what I learned changing the timing belt on my '95 855 glt na.

1) There are two different belts for the car contrary to what some auto parts people will tell you. The difference is the length and there is a motor number cutoff whether you need the long or short one. The cutoff is around 134xxx, I found out the hard way mine is 148xxx, so there is a short belt for sale on ebay now, bid if you need it! New correct belt was $37.99 from Advance Auto, took 2 days to special order it.

2} I needed a 12mm short and long socket I didn't have. Don't know if I ever had them before, Japanese cars don't use 12mm I guess.

3}The crankshaft nut is a 30mm, again, never had anything this big, I used a 12 inch metric cresent to turn the crank to line up marks and check for timing when I was done.

4} I don't know if I EVER saw the mark on the crank pulley that the manual talked about, once I lined up the upper marks in the center of the v's I applied white out to them and the valley between the two teeth on the crank pulley. I later realized there is a mark on the back side of the serpentine belt pulley that lines up perfecly..

5} I used a 6 inch c-clamp to compress the belt tensioner. Took about 10 minutes to press it slowley, then used a finishing nail to lock it in place. When it was time to release it water pump pliers from below pulled the nail out no problems.

6} One of the hardest things was getting the belt tensioner back in place. I struggled for 15 minutes then used a phillips screwdriver to line up and force the lowerbolt hole in place, then installed the upper bolt, removed the screwdriver and installed the upper.

7} The most PITA part was getting the serpintine belt back on. I made a tool to slack the tensioner from a piece of 1/8 inch thick, one inch wide stock from HD. Belt an L shape on the end about 3/4 inch long, gave me a 36 inch long handle to operate the tensioner. I ended up removing the right splasg guard to get the belt to seat on the lower 2 pulleys. The belt was $17.99 fro FCP Groten.

8} As I found through the archives as common, my right motor mount had failed and cracked allowing the engine to move quit a bit. Wish I'd of bought one before while the car was on stands and wheel removed.

Hope this helps someone out! Best Wishes, Chuck.
1995 855 GLT NA, had it two months, timing belt, O2 sensor, shift micro switch, no rattle tail gate, tranny flush, drilled rotors whith finally quiet brakes, a cd changer, flash arrestor, and now 3 oil changes.