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Got to tell you about my first timing belt change. My wife and I were on the North Cascades Highway in Washington state, miles from the nearest Volvo dealer. I made the comment that the car (1979 240) hadn't given us trouble for a year. Not five minutes later, the car died. We had enough momentum to get to the side of the road. I was a neophyte Volvo mechanic then. A good Samaritan, who used to be a Volvo mechanic, stopped and identified the timing belt as the culprit. We had it towed to a local garage, whose mechanic knew nothing about Volvos. The nearest Volvo shop was over 100 miles away. So, we stayed overnight in Twisp and caught a ride back west of the mountains with a couple of hunters. All that week, I learned all I could about changing the timing belt. We rented a car the next weekend and I replaced the timing belt in 4 hours in the lot of the service station. The station's mechanic kept popping up to check up on me. I believe he was surprised that I could do the job all by myself. Oh, I seem to recall that I didn't have the Volvo special tool (5284) either. I believe I used a long bar to twist through the timing belt for tension (something I don't recommend!). It worked for this emergency repair.
For trips, I carry a spare timing belt, the 5284 tool, RPM sensor (for 940), Power Stage, fuel injection relay, radio suppression relay, multimeter, a lot of tools, and a cell phone.
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