In August I purchased a D3 with 170k on the clock. It has the usual gremlins; intermittent airbag and suspension warning light, the OSR door doesn’t open and the hand brake fuse has been pulled—mechanically it’s sound and it was a bargain.
I drove it for a couple of months and then purchased a FOMOCO oil pump and cam belt kit; what this thread isn’t is a description of how to do the job—there a plenty of good links on YouTube and the forums. Fairly straightforward—achievable with tools that you’d find in a well stocked workshop. Ramp not required.
OIL PUMP AND TIMING BELT CHANGE - IT WASN’T WHAT WE EXPECTED.
We started by taking the starter motor off and pulling it back; five mounting bolts and a small plate hold it to the sump—it only took 15 minutes (don’t believe what you read online and you can get a spanner on them all) to unbolt (from below) and expose the timing mark on the flywheel, we didn’t even disconnect the feed.
We took the timing belt cover off and exposed the timing belt. We turned the engine over until the locking marks aligned and locked the cam shafts (two 6mm drill bits do the job).
We removed belt and crank shaft sprocket and swapped the oil pump. We put the crank shaft sprocket back on, torqued the bolt and rotated the flywheel until the locating hole re-aligned, refitted the belt and attempted to turn the engine over—pistons crashed into valves…
[We walked away and had a condor moment!]
We took the belt back off, removed the pins that were locking the cam shafts and rotated them individually. It became apparent that the left hand camshaft was out by ~15deg (clockwise).
We rotated and re pinned the cam shafts individually, and ensured the flywheel was realigned before refitting the belt. This time the engine turned over as it should and we could feel consistent compression across the cycle. What’s remains unclear is whether at some point it had jumped (unlikely) or the last person to do got it very wrong… more likely.
So what;
It may feel like the pin is in the locating holes for the camshaft sprocket—but this may not be the case (they should be at the ~five o’clock position).
You don’t need a flywheel locking tool to do the job you can align it accurately by eye (with a small mirror).
Clearly the timing was pretty badly out (but with the crankshaft and camshaft incorrect, clearly it was still running (and whilst down on power, I had attributed it to just being a clapped diesel that weighs a lot!)—not the case any more.
To summarise; as always when working on cars on the drive (normally late at night and in the drizzle!) trust nothing and if things don’t appear as they seem, go and make a brew, have a think about it and come back another day!
I drove it for a couple of months and then purchased a FOMOCO oil pump and cam belt kit; what this thread isn’t is a description of how to do the job—there a plenty of good links on YouTube and the forums. Fairly straightforward—achievable with tools that you’d find in a well stocked workshop. Ramp not required.
OIL PUMP AND TIMING BELT CHANGE - IT WASN’T WHAT WE EXPECTED.
We started by taking the starter motor off and pulling it back; five mounting bolts and a small plate hold it to the sump—it only took 15 minutes (don’t believe what you read online and you can get a spanner on them all) to unbolt (from below) and expose the timing mark on the flywheel, we didn’t even disconnect the feed.
We took the timing belt cover off and exposed the timing belt. We turned the engine over until the locking marks aligned and locked the cam shafts (two 6mm drill bits do the job).
We removed belt and crank shaft sprocket and swapped the oil pump. We put the crank shaft sprocket back on, torqued the bolt and rotated the flywheel until the locating hole re-aligned, refitted the belt and attempted to turn the engine over—pistons crashed into valves…
[We walked away and had a condor moment!]
We took the belt back off, removed the pins that were locking the cam shafts and rotated them individually. It became apparent that the left hand camshaft was out by ~15deg (clockwise).
We rotated and re pinned the cam shafts individually, and ensured the flywheel was realigned before refitting the belt. This time the engine turned over as it should and we could feel consistent compression across the cycle. What’s remains unclear is whether at some point it had jumped (unlikely) or the last person to do got it very wrong… more likely.
So what;
It may feel like the pin is in the locating holes for the camshaft sprocket—but this may not be the case (they should be at the ~five o’clock position).
You don’t need a flywheel locking tool to do the job you can align it accurately by eye (with a small mirror).
Clearly the timing was pretty badly out (but with the crankshaft and camshaft incorrect, clearly it was still running (and whilst down on power, I had attributed it to just being a clapped diesel that weighs a lot!)—not the case any more.
To summarise; as always when working on cars on the drive (normally late at night and in the drizzle!) trust nothing and if things don’t appear as they seem, go and make a brew, have a think about it and come back another day!
