I recently ran into some issues with my 760. I was climbing a ski mountain having serious traction issues, when my motor sound & power changed noticably. At first I thought it was lack of fuel as I was in a low fuel state, but now know that wasn't the issue. Upon start up, the motor is very rough idling, sounding like a VW boxer style motor, up until it is fully heated up. Power is in the doghouse.

I am in the process of replacing the TB (my guess is I slipped a tooth) as I don't know the date of the last replacement and will check the hard marks for acuraccy. I have done this on an old 245 which had a belt failure with no problems, but the Hayes book isn't helping me much right now. I have removed the fan, shroud and WP Pulley; as well as 4 bolts from the TC. The TC is in 3 pieces, I have the top one off, but the lower one doesn't seem to want to budge.

Are there more bolts holding the TC in place?

Do I have to remove the Crank Pulley? the Hayes book doesn't seem to say that, but it seems like I must...

thanks for any help...

Good Evening VTwgn;
First, I am assuming you have a 4 cylinder / turbo engine. Yes the crank pulley, ie harmonic balancer must come off. I used a 1/2" air gun and a large ( 1 1/16 " ??) socket and that cracked the bolt loose. Just use the gun to loosen it or else you run the risk of backing the gun out into the radiator as the bolt unscrews. The balancer slips off and then a dished guide washer. Note the way the washer is oriented (flanged fwd) because if you put it on backwards you will chop up your new belt. Change the trensioner too. In my experience it is cheap insurance to do the lot, it saves potiental grief later. The lower cover has, I think, a bolt hidden by the balancer pulley, and you will see it once the pulley is off. As the old Haynes book says, 're-assembly is the reverse of the above.'

Regards;
Mike Coleman
North Lancaster, Ontario, Canada
1988 240 Stationwagon, 280,000 miles
1992 740 Stationwagon, 179,000 miles
1984 Mercedes 300D, 310,000 miles
1986 Mercedes 300SDL, 192,000 miles
1998 GMC Safari, 394,000 kms

PS. In the week or so leading up to this problem, I was having some issues with ignition & idle.
1) I was having 'seeking' problems with my idle when at I would come to a stop. the idle would drop down to a near stall, then surge, wanting to pull me forward before settling into it's normal range.

2) There would be a fairly regular skip in the motor, where it seemed like I wasn't getting one cylinder to fire every 15 secs or so at lower RPMs.

3) Once, I had a backfire upon dropping out of the throttle

I'll bet you dime to a dollar that the Timing Belt Tensioner is on the way out.

Replace it ! Don't screw around. My '86 740 Turbo did the same thing. You maybe have baked and thrown some of the ball bearings in the tensioner assembly, you need to make sure that you take off the lower dust cover - that means you MUST pull off the Crank Pulley. Make sure you inspect that cover and make damn sure there is NO, ZERO, NADA, shrapnel inside that lower cover OR behind the crank pulley BEFORE you reassemble all the parts. You will be fornicating yourself with a large long device of some sort if you don't replace that tensioner. It could be very painful and I would suggest you take me seriously.

You are already there, so don't bypass this step, you'll be sorry if you do and I am speaking from experience. If there is ANY shrapnel in there (bearings) and you put that back together without cleaning and inspecting you are going to be in for a huge PITA !

You can call me if you send me an email - we are neighbors, or I can call you if you send an email with your phone but, DON'T screw with this ! Trust me.

Abe Lincoln said it was a smart man who learned from his own mistakes - only a genius could learn from someone else's..........

Cousin John
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'92 740 B230F Wagon::'92 B230F 240::'86 B230FT Wagon (RIP-Parts Car):'83 320I::'79 320I::'81 320I::'74 2002::'70 Torino GT Convertible(351C)::1970 Dodge Dart GT 340::'70 Monte Carlo::1979 Dodge Tradesman B300 Custom(360)::'84 SAAB 900S::2004 Dodge Dakota

Yeah, it seems as if my tensioner has failed (or is it supposed to be concentric?). I went to my LPS who can order me one for tuesday... I held off while I do the math on this about a car w/ 520k on it (not my only repair due).

Thanks for the heads up. I haven't removed the lower cover yet, so I haven't found any shrapnel, but I expect it...

I have had very good luck with BFCP for a parts source - I use the one in White River Junction but, they are sprinkled all over VT. You probably already know of BFCP. Or, if you want one off of my 1986 B230FT you can coe take it off of mine in the back driveway and have it for 10 bucks (it is near new - about a year old) I think they are about 50 - 65 bucks from BFCP - not quite sure.

The Tensioner change is easy but PLEASE make sure you get the shrapnel out, my tensioner blew apart and the lower dust cover was put back on (not by me) and there were 4 or 5 ball bearings down in the lower cover that either wedged in behind or near the grease on the block near the Crank pulley Shaft.

So, after the belt and tensioner were both repalced, the car ran great until the bearings started breaking loose inside the cover like popcorn and got in bertween the teeth on the belt and it skipped timing - it drove me crazy for two months until I said "Screw This" and I tore the whole thing apart and found the ball bearings in the lower cover - they got there from before I replaced the belt & Tensioner - the tensioner dried out and heated up and the bearings went flying all over -

PLEASE take the extra time to go into the lower crank shaft pulley area and cover and use a magnet, a rag, popsicle stick, whatever but ake sure there are no hunks of shrapnel in or near
the lower stuff. It is where the shrapnel settles, if there is any.

--
'92 740 B230F Wagon::'92 B230F 240::'86 B230FT Wagon (RIP-Parts Car):'83 320I::'79 320I::'81 320I::'74 2002::'70 Torino GT Convertible(351C)::1970 Dodge Dart GT 340::'70 Monte Carlo::1979 Dodge Tradesman B300 Custom(360)::'84 SAAB 900S::2004 Dodge Dakota

http://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/EngineSealsBeltsVent.htm#Changing_Timing_Belt_Procedures_for_B23_B230_Series_Engines

That link will provide information about the procedure. Yes, the pulley must be removed to change the belt.

Randy

Thanks Randy, I'll check that thread... I tried reading through some of the threads with a search, but don't think I got to that one...

Bummer about the Crank Pulley, I hoped to avoid that.

I think Randy is thinking 940, with your 6 cylinder 960 you'll have to follow this procedure:

http://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/EngineSealsBeltsVent.htm#960TimingBeltChange

Quite a bit different that the B230...

Good Luck!

Shifted
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--------1993 945 GLT 74,000--------1973 Suzuki Jimny 'Brute' 61,000--------

Its not a thread. Upper right corner, select shortcut, scroll down to 700/900faqs.
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Post Back. That's whats makes this forum work.