|
With all the talk of timing belt replacement, I wanted to relay a series of not-to-funny-at-the-time stories about my B230 timing belt escapades.
Two years ago, right before Christmas, I changed the timing belt in my wife’s 940. Not to bad, pretty straight-forward process actually. However, it’s about 3:00 on a Friday afternoon and we’re on I-20, 40 miles west of Jackson, Mississippi, halfway between Dallas and our South Georgia destination. It’s icy and in the low 30s when I look in the rearview and see white smoke billowing out from under the mule - I quickly look at the temp gauge - PEGGED ON HOT.... Uh oh, I look up and there’s an exit. Immediately I kill the engine and coast up the ramp.
I pop the hood, get out and find the harmonic balancer pretty much hanging by the accessory drive belts. What the #$*&!!!! Looks like I didn’t get the darn thing tight enough...crap. Thank goodness I had my tool box....Off come the belts and the pulley, when I notice the crank timing gear key sheared off in balancer. BTW, about 10 guys on their way to their deer stands (it was December!!) stop and offer assistance (what a great state!), but feeling pretty stupid at this point, I shrugged them off.
Anyway, no cell phone. No pay phones in sight. So off we go, limping into Jackson at 35 mph and minutes before the ONLY volvo dealer in town closes for the weekend. YES,we found it. And yes, they have the lower gear. Well, it’s about dark now, but what the hey.... Off comes the timing belt and on goes the new crank gear. I button it all up, torque the balancer bolt as much as possibly can and off we go. Well, about midnight we hit Selma, Al (think civil rights marches back in the ‘60s) when BANG!!!! We pull over and yep....SOS. This time not only is the gear gone,but the balancer has had it...With no other option, I tighten everything back up and off we go....limping to Montgomery under 2000 rpm (it worked....)and on to Auburn and on to Columbus, Ga. early the next morning. What should’ve been a 12 hour drive ended up taking 20+ hours. And to think my wife was so proud of me – it didn’t really matter to her my mechanicing got us in trouble to begin with...
Ended up, I needed another new crank gear and a new balancer, as the keyway in this one was so wallowed out after two shearings....
Anyway, to make a long story short, over the next several months, probably went back into the timing belt four or five times, replaced a couple more crank gears, a new balancer and a couple timing belts...then I found out it was a good idea to replace the cam/crank seals..... So before I knew it, I am an expert changing B230 timing belts.
All along, my wife kept begging me to take the mule to a certified volvo mechanic or dealer, and have them properly fix the car. Well, rockheaded me, this was NOT going to beat me, and there is no way I’m going to pay someone $450+ to go in after me.....
Well, the mule has been operating flawlessly for a couple years and 20k+ miles now, with no signs of wobbling balancers. How did I do it? Lot’s of patience, parts, a patient spouse and most importantly, a 1/2 drive impact wrench and loctite on the harmonic balancer bolt.
I still would love to hear what the proper way to keep the engine from turning over while putting 140+ pounds on the balancer bolt.....
Anyway, thanks for the room. I’ve always wanted to confess this...
|
