It finally happened. i think i snapped my cambelt.

Mattbigwood · Post by **Mattbigwood** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:25 pm

Bludge wrote:Had a read through the guide. not liking the look of it! what special tools am i gonna need to do the job? and should i be doing the tensioner and stuff at the same time?

I'd replace the tensioner. On my previous lude I had the cam belt changed but not the auto tensioner, and three days later the tensioner spring failed and the cam belt jumped a couple of teeth whilst I was doing 30mph. No damage to the engine though.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Sun Nov 29, 2015 11:49 pm

That sounds more like the tensioner was removed or refitted incorrectly, imo

If you don't fit the retaining tool before removing the tensioner, you shag it up. Most mechanics wouldn't be aware of that if they're not familiar with the engine.

Post by **Drax** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 9:26 am

wurlycorner wrote:That sounds more like the tensioner was removed or refitted incorrectly, imo If you don't fit the retaining tool before removing the tensioner, you shag it up. Most mechanics wouldn't be aware of that if they're not familiar with the engine.

how would you fit the retaining tool on the auto tensioner before removing the tensioner that puts the pressure on it in the first place, surely that needs to come off? then remove the auto tensioner and then you can just undo the nut, put the retaining tool on and then do the nut back up?

Bludge id replace the water pump too at the same time

Post by **Greg-SiR** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:51 am

I envy owners who go in the deep and give this a go,it gets to the point of is it worth the money to pay someone to do this or do i have anything to loose by doing it myself particularly when the car hits 20 odd yrs of been around.

Saying that i tried it and failed,couldn't get past getting the crank pulley off,everything else was out of the way,i had a mate come down with his air tool pack we went at it still no give,so i went the mobile mechanic route and he gave up!said it was his rattle gun failing so in the end i found out we had all been going the wrong way and tightening it more

I gave in and got it towed to a garage who done the job in 3 hours and charged me extra for the bolt been so tight,required heating and shed loads of sweat.

I went with the http://www.kstuned.com/products/h22-timing-tensioner and all worked out good.

Mine was off the road at the time for near a month whilst i waited on parts from the Us from Rockauto and others and mostly because the waterpump had failed

1 year on it's all in the rearview.

Post by **Vtecmec** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 2:17 pm

wurlycorner wrote:If you don't fit the retaining tool before removing the tensioner, you shag it up. Most mechanics wouldn't be aware of that if they're not familiar with the engine.

Just as a comment, I've never done this, but had no issues either.

Saying that, next time I'll be going down the manual tensioner route......

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:31 pm

Ah, well fair do's and you've done it, whereas that is a job I'm yet to tackle myself on an h22. I was going from what I had read from others (and,

iirc???) the service manual. I stand corrected if that's wrong though.

(I still think failing 3 days after fitment does smack much more of error/mistake in workmanship though, rather than indication of component life!)

Post by **Donald** » Tue Dec 01, 2015 7:58 am

I trick is to let someone write it off before you get to having to change the belt.

Post by **Drax** » Tue Dec 01, 2015 8:55 am

wurlycorner wrote:Ah, well fair do's and you've done it, whereas that is a job I'm yet to tackle myself on an h22. I was going from what I had read from others (and, iirc???) the service manual. I stand corrected if that's wrong though.

(I still think failing 3 days after fitment does smack much more of error/mistake in workmanship though, rather than indication of component life!)

ah fair enough, it was more a question just in case id been doing it wrong

im not much of a mechanic compared to yourself and I worry easily if ive done something one way and then see another way of doing it, its usually me that's dived in and mucked it up

cheers for the reply though!

Post by **Vtecmec** » Tue Dec 01, 2015 9:10 am

Actually thinking about it a bit more, you would not be able to physically fit the retainer to the tensioner as it only fits on its minimum extension, and once its on the car, its extended a bit and past the minimum limit.

Post by **Drax** » Tue Dec 01, 2015 9:39 am

Vtecmec wrote:Actually thinking about it a bit more, you would not be able to physically fit the retainer to the tensioner as it only fits on its minimum extension, and once its on the car, its extended a bit and past the minimum limit.

this is exactly what I was thinking, and you cant undo the bolt to wind the tensioner end in while fitted to the car as its on the underneath of the tensioner and has oil inside it or some sorts, and so will just drain out empty.

maybe the Honda special tool fits on magically somehow

im going to look at the service manual as iain has done, maybe make sense of this