Timing Belt Change
Esprit Series 2
After reading for two years (i.e. even before I bought my car) about the dangers of driving an Esprit with a timing belt of unknown vintage I spoke to someone who was living with the consequences of not having changed his in time. Okay, time to do the job.
This job was going to be the first serious maintenance I have done myself on this car so I expected it to be a real learning experience and a chance to get well acquainted with the business end of the beast. Well I was right about all that and more. I now understand the jokes on the lotus mailing list about the service manual instructions much better. For example, one of the first steps described in the manual is "remove the V-belt". Okay, how the heck do you do that??? Well in my "automechanically challenged" case at least, it is simple - you grope around until you find something linked to the v-belt that you can manage to get the drive wheel off. That turned out to be the alternator.
This turned out to be the right choice as I eventually needed to get the drive wheel and fan off the alternator to get access to the timing belt tensioner.
Other bits I was forced to remove just to gain access to the timing belt stuff were, the air box and a couple of cooling hoses (which obviously means draining the cooling system) located at the front end of the engine block. I also needed to remove the alternator to get at the lock nut on the belt tensioner but I never did figure out how to do that. I removed both bolts holding it in place and was able to pivot it freely about its attachment point on the engine but never did find a way to remove it. It seems there is some kind of sleeve here (not described in the manual) which I could never find the secret removal technique for.
While pondering the method for gaining access to the lock nut. I noted in the manual that the nut and washer on one of the tensioner mounting studs needed to be removed to give access to the retaining pin hole. After fiddling away at this for a while (access to that nut is not great either) I realized that I was actually not backing off the nut but rather removing the whole stud! It turns out that this stud also holds the alternator's V-belt adjusting strap (which is actually a bracket not a strap). Since this is the thing that was preventing me from getting a wrench or socket on the lock nut, I was able to remove the stud and strap together and finally get at the timing belt! Hurray!
I am now ready to start the job I thought I was going to do and it has only taken three days! At this rate, I should have this job wrapped up in time for Xmas.
So the next job is to remove the distributor cap. Easy right? Wow, that took half an hour and I still managed to damage the center contact! I can't believe there isn't a better way to design these things especially when they are mounted as they are in an Esprit.
Now its the mirror magic to line up all the timing marks and distributor arm so I can get the thing reassembled in the correct orientation. I am now really getting the hang of all the variations of the world famous "Lotus Position". I don't seem to be getting any closer to Nirvana though.
So it has now been a week since I began the job and I have finally got the v-belt pulley off the end of the crank shaft. (its such a minor thing that Lotus doesn't even include it in the manual That little task took four days! It wasn't until I got a tip from Ed Luce that I needed to jam something big and strong into the bell housing to hold the crank rigid so I could get enough torque on the bolt that I finally got it free. (Thanks to Ed for the advice and to my wife for operating the screwdriver in the bell housing while I stood on my head to apply the torque).
I am now waiting for Chuque Henry to arrive. He said that with his experience he could change a timing belt in 15 minutes so I invited him to prove it using my car. In the unlikely event that Chuque doesn't have 15 minutes to spare, the next move is to get the pin into the belt tensioner. Now this is an IMPORTANT point. I know that because its in the manual! My god, the v-belt pulley thing wasn't even mentioned so how big a disaster awaits me now?? I now know that the best approach is to sleep on the tough ones. So after an hour and a half of pushing and pulling and cursing, I decided to take the weekend to think about it.
So I got some good advice from Chuque when I called him up on Monday evening. One tip he gave me was to be sure and get the pin into the belt tensioner before removing the belt otherwise it would take two weeks to remove and rebuild the tensioner. This must be very important because this is just what the manual says. So I very carefully kept backing the tensioning bolt a half turn at a time and tried to insert the pin. Being very un-Ian-like, I was very patient knowing it would eventually slide in as described in the manual and then I could get on with changing the belt. Well my patience finally paid off big time! I backed off the tensioning bolt another half turn and it jumped right out of my hand and launched itself across the engine bay! Hurray! The good news was that there was no longer any tension on the old belt and it was going to be a piece of cake to remove. Of course, I knew there was going to be some kind of painfull price to pay for this good news and I was not looking forward to learning about that.
Anyway, I got the old belt off and made myself dizzy running around the car to look at all the timing marks many times to get them in the right places. I expected this part to be the hardest part of all and once again employed some of my new found patience. Actually, this part turned out not to be nearly as difficult as I expected. Maybe taking the tensioning bolt right out is the best technique after all! Okay, the belt is on, the timming marks are lined up (I think) so now lets study this tensioner thing. My wife has taught me that the direct approach is often the best for these things so I tried to just compress the spring by hand and screw the bolt back in. I knew this had serious risk of cross threading and more big trouble but what the heck, I would be carefull and I would just try. Well knock me over with a feather, but it worked!!! So now I am beginning to believe it IS possible to change the timing belt on an Esprit.
So not wanting to press my luck too far, I stopped for the night. For one thing, I want to quadruple check my timing marks before I tension the belt. I also have to locate all the parts I found necessary to remove and figure out where they need to go, so I don't want to rush the job just when success is in reach.
Well, I finally got another chance to move my belt change forward. I got the belt nicely tensioned thanks to my new Krikit gauge. (NOTE: The gates Krikit gauge model 91107 requires a tension reading of 55 pounds as opposed to the 95 Burroughs units indicated by the Lotus manual. I determined this by measuring the tension of my original belt before removing it.) Then I reinstalled the distributor cap and spark plugs and decided to run the engine for three minutes like it advises in the manual. Well I'll be "gobsmacked" it started right up and ran after all the things I had done to it! This short run apparently will allow any stretching or shifting that could happen with a new belt and a second belt tensioning check is then recommended. In anticipation of a little "stretching" I had put a few extra pounds of tension on the belt and wow, it wound up just perfect.
So, now its time to put all the pieces back and I'll get to go for a test drive. I knew that damned alternator adjusting strap thing was going to be a nuisance but little did I suspect the surprise coming my way! Yup, the stud I was so lucky to have removed earler, the one that finally allowed me to remove the adjusting strap and get access to the tensioning screw, well it won't go back in! It seems that there are only two attachment points for the the tensioner and when one is removed the whole thing shifts under spring tension and no amount of cursing will align the thing again. Another wasted day and still nothing to show for it all. I'm sure that if I remove the belt and take all the tension off the spring that I could reinsert the stud but then the damned adjusting strap will be right where I can't have it to re-tension the belt. This is called catch Lotus right? So now its back to sleeping on it to see if some insight will come to me so I can outsmart those diabolical lotus designers.
After carefully studying the advice I received from fellow Lotus mailing listers I was ready to try again. Special thanks to Tim Engel who took a lot of time to spell out some detailed options he has used for this phase of the job and to Lorne Mason who provided some pertinent tips on getting the locking pin in place. Both of these knowledgeable folks had correctly figured out that my problem was fighting against the tensioner spring without a locking pin in place. The trick I didn't understand was that it was possible to leave the pin in until after the stud had been started as long as the correct pin is used. Either a long flexible one or a shorter one that can be removed before the nut on the stud is too far home.
So full of newfound knowledge and enthusiasm I went back at it. I really did not want to remove the tensioner completely (one of Tim's options) because I had taken a long time to reinstall the belt with all the marks exactly where they were and I didn't want to do that again unless absolutely necessary. So I enlisted my wife to use a snow shovel handle (well what do you expect to find around a Canadian garage?) to apply some tension to the belt while I inserted the damned locking pin. After many fruitless attempts, I gave up and decided I would have to follow Tim's approach after all. I still don't know why but for some reason I decided I would try the technique I was using two nights earlier. Specifically this was to rotate the belt tensioner against the spring force back to its home position and slide the stud in. I was sure this wouldn't work which is why it did! Two things had changed since my first attempt. First I had backed the tensioning screw out a few more turns which would have reduced the spring tension and the second was that the tensioning of the spring with the snow shovel handle had "worked" the spring enough to give a little more play.
I could see with the mirror that I was essentially lined up for the stud but the alternator adjusting strap and washer were still missaligned. I was afraid that moving them would spring the system and put me back to square one, but all went well and two minutes later I was happily turning the stud home. I did have to find a matching nut to thread on with the original one so I could actually turn the stud and not just thread the nut onto the stud. That turned out to work well and the stud went home nicely. I was even able to find a way to remove my second nut when the job was done. I was certainly living right tonight!
I decided that I would just put the v-belt on and call it a night. The next evening, I went in and contrary to my usual nature, I decided to inspect my work before I completed reassembly of the car. Again the gods were with me because the belt tensioner lock nut was loose even though I had tightened it before I put the v-belt on. When I studied the situation I realized that the v-belt adjusting strap which I had managed to swing up just enough to get the lock nut on had loosened the lock nut when I rotated it down again to install the v-belt! So, I removed the v-belt and did the procedure again but made sure that the lock nut stayed tight this time.
The rest of the job was pretty simple and I got the car ready to go. I noticed it didn't crank very well. It started up anyway so I just decided it had been sitting too long and that all would be well after a quick drive around to charge the battery up again. One quick spin to check my gauges. Temp 90C, volts 14, oil pressure @ 100 kph 70 psi all exactly normal although the voltage might have been a touch higher than normal, I decided that was just due to the low battery. So it is time for supper and I return home triumphant. After supper its time for a more serious test drive to see the sunset. Again all goes well, gauges reading steady at normal. Even the volt meter has dropped slightly to be just where it normally rests. Complete victory!!! Oops, the "Prince of Darkness" appears and brings me back down to earth (pardon the British pun there). Since the sun is now nicely setting it is time to turn on headlights. Yup, you guessed it - no lights. Now I remember the low battery and a light comes on - so to speak. Quickly race home in my jet black, low slung, stealth car before total darkness arrives. Guess what I am doing tommorow?
here endeth book number one.
Oops, I spoke too soon! I have been on three test drives since installing it and the engine runs as it should. On the second test drive (at dusk) the headlights would not work (see above). I took the dash switch apart and sure enough, one of the "rocker things" had jumped out of its "cradle" and shorted out the circuit. It looks as though what happened was the build up of minor corrosion over the years on the copper had created more and more resistance which lead to heating of the metal which slightly melted the plastic "cradle". This enlarged the "cradle" and left enough play for the "rocker thing" to jump. I fiddled around with it a bit to try and reduce this play and of course cleaned all the corrosion off with some fine steel wool. It is obligatory to use lots of WD 40 in there to complete the job of course. While in there I noticed that this was the only switch on this side of the dash which hadn't been repaired by a PO and held together with electrical tape!
When I reasembled the switch I was very pleased that the right headlight pod immediately did its thing but was more than a little annoyed that the left one did not. On closer examination, the lights were on but the pod had not moved. So I am asking myself what is the connection between the timing belt and the left front headlight pod? I decided to start by looking at the connectors at both pods. Sure enough the right one (the one that works) is quite corroded and dirty while the left one is like new. I decide next to use the multi meter to find the problem and turn the light switch on to energise the system when both headlights pop up! Go figure.
So, its a beautiful sunny summer day, a nice scenic drive along lake Ontario in my fully functioning Esprit seems like a perfect end to the long weekend. Temperature, voltage, oil pressure, headlights all perfect. I'll just pass this pickup truck, left signal on, change lanes, pass truck, right signal on - why did my wipers just come on?! I manipulate the turn indicator lever again to turn the wipers off and you guessed it, both headlight pods jump up and flash at oncoming traffic! What do wipers and headlights have to do with each other and timing belt changes? I'm sure all those people looking at this strange car were really confused to see it flashing past a pickup truck with the wipers on high speed in an area where it hasn't rained in three weeks and with its headlights going on and off.
Well this one turned out to be caused by the sleeve (which surrounds the steering column stalk and over which the turn and wiper switches are mounted) moving back (i.e. toward the driver) far enough to let the switch bracket rotate freely around the steering column. This meant that in trying to use the turn signal I actually operated the switch on the opposite side. An easy fix but what a crazy series of events. What else does a timing belt connect to? At this rate of learning, I'll be a world Esprit "expert" in no time.
P.S. The new engine mount I ordered has now arrived so stay tuned for the next chapter in the coming weeks.