QuickSilver 0 Report post Posted February 8, 2008 (edited) Hey everybody, noticed today that my cambelt seemed slackish (or what I thought was slack), im in the middle of replacing my clutch, and saw that if I wanted to, I could pull the belt right off the main cog at the top, at the moment the engine has no gearbox attached etc etc, I dont know if this would contribute to less or more tension, but could someone please advise how tight it should be?? Also how do I tighten it if I need to, cambelt and tensioner were replaced under a year ago by a mechanic the day I bought it, 87 P/FL 320i e30 Thanks all, Alex. edit: typo Edited February 8, 2008 by QuickSilver Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
will 169 Report post Posted February 8, 2008 (edited) Sounds far too loose, why don't you replace it while you are at it? A decent belt will cost no more than $75 I think.. go to Euro-Italian, he keeps that type of stuff. A new tensioner should be considered also especially if the bearing is noisy! If you want to just tension it, firstly turn the engine over at the crank pulley with a spanner a couple of turns (to make sure the belt has tension on the correct (passenger) side), then loosten the two bolts that hold on the tensioner (one is the pivot bolt, the other is for the adjustment lock). The tensioner is spring loaded and should tension the belt up to the correct tension, DO NOT OVER-TENSION THE BELT by trying to manually help the tensioner! Re-tighten the bolts, rotate the motor over a few times again and check the belt tension on the passenger side (where it goes directly from the cam pulley to the crank pulley) by twisting the belt with your thumb and forefinger, I make sure you can twist it about 80-90 deg at the midpoint, if you can twist it more than 90, retension it, if you cant get it to 80 deg, it is likely too tight so relax it a bit and re-test. If you are not sure about anything just yell and I will try to explain it more clearly. Will edit.. there is an electronic e30 Hayes manual somewhere around here on BS, I just can't find it right now.. best I can find is HERE Edited February 8, 2008 by will Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
QuickSilver 0 Report post Posted February 8, 2008 Thanks Will, going by what you said maybe I was just being a little paranoid, and after doing the thumb and forefinger test, i can rotate 80-90 degrees also, belt and tensioner have been replaced about 20thou k's ago when I bought the car last year so their still good, tensioner was noisy when i replaced them, Bottomless pit of info you are Will! Cheers! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Gus 5 Report post Posted February 8, 2008 just replace it dude, its so cheap and worth doing for your own piece of mind..the belt i think is around $30 from euro-italian my rule of thumb is you cant move the belt more than 1cm left or right facing from the front...it needs to seem taut but not super tight Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
will 169 Report post Posted February 8, 2008 Gus, you continue to impress me... here I was thinking all this time that you only knew FT... Will Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
