GT mediated Awesomeness

[saintjamesy89]

It is a right pain to access innit? There's about 2 and a half inches in front of said retaining bolt to the inner wing, there's less than 1/2" between the bolt and the engine mount (so no room for bulky spanners/adjustable's). If you insert your spanner vertically, you have to fight with the belt and then you only get two inches of spanner-travel cos of the engine mount and alternator pulley. So it really is difficult to get to! /rant

I dread doing the cambelt... Although Brian's suggestion of removing the engine mount is very sensible.

[Dollywobbler]

Cambelt isn't too bad - I somehow don't mind that being a bit fiddly but an alternator has no business being fiddly! I took the engine mount off to do the belt on mine. For two reasons - accessibility and because you can then move the engine around in the bay. I did this a lot to improve access to various things.

With the cambelt, your biggest problem is getting the crankshaft pulley bolt undone. I've got an electric impact driver now, though I can't remember if there's enough access to get that in!

[saintjamesy89]

This is going to sound silly to all you techy people, but why do you have to undo the crank pulley bolt? If you loosen and remove the belt via the tensioner then surely you could leave the crank pulley? I know Brian put it in his fab petrol cambelt change guide but I can't see why.

[mat_fenwick]

It has been suggested that you can leave the pulley, but for the life of me I can't see how (unless the plastic cover is missing) until next time I do one. Been about 10 years since I did a petrol XU but recall it being very similar to the XUD.

Even if you can manouvre the belt into place you have to ask whether it's a good idea if it involves a lot of flexing.

[saintjamesy89]

Ah, just re-read the guide properly and now see that you need to remove the pulley to remove the lower belt cover - very sensible. Don't want to damage a nice new cambelt by shoving under the pulley and cover.

[mds141]

Is the alternator set up on a valver different to other BX's? When I did mine last year it was a 5 minute job. The HP pump belt was a different story though....

[Wooscary]

See I thought the HP belt was really easy but can't even begin to imagine the complexities of the other belts. Hmmm .

[mds141]

Bit of a pain on a valver as the pump itself doesn't move for adjustment and there is a jockey wheel to manoeuvre around, so in reality you need three hands and come away with skinned knuckles as there isn't much room.

[saintjamesy89]

IIRC HP pump and alternator belts are that way around on diesels and 14's but the other way around on 16/19's (sure that's what I read in the haynes book of lies). On the subject of Haynes, their description for belt removal generally was pants! No spanner/socket sizes, just said undo this bolt and swivel alternator.

[Birotor]

Mat has got it right My son asked for my Casette insert the other day but they are about at car boot sales, I then found my FM transmitter made by Belkin which works with a portable CD player or MP3 or portable Cassette player. The major problem is that the air waves are crowded and on journeys newly picked up stations intruded. I gave up on it. Overall I recommend the advice to get to know a car BEFORE you do cosmetics and tweaks, And dont forget K & Ns and altering exhaust systems are a good start at upsetting carburation.

[Willy]

A gift for you Tom:

[Tim Leech]

So thats where they all are!

[saintjamesy89]

12 MK2's! And they're all interesting pre-facelift ones too! I am ridiculously excited! Which Kingsway was that place on? I've looked at the one in York on google earth but it's not the right one...

The green one parked on the road, second from the front is a super rare colour too.

[Defender110]

Kingsway LUTON

[Willy]

Epic link:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=kingsw ... ,8,,0,7.56" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I thought it was your house?