Dear Saintjamesy89
Cambelt on a petrol BX
Now that is where I can definately help.
First thing to do is, if you haven,t got one already is a workshop
manual, one very very kindly left in the car for me when I bought mine,
so you can familar yourself with the timing marks. As after me working
at a Vauxhall dealer for 8 years from '93 to '01. The timing marks on
the Astra,s and Cavalier,s etc. etc. are all at the 12 o,clock position,
which makes them very easy to renew. I know exactly about the water-pumps bieng slackened off to enable the cambelt to be renewed and
then use the waterpump to tighten the cambelt
I used Mr Meteor,s ( Brian,s ) absolutely excellant thread on the
subject of " replacing a cambelt on petrol BX " is really really a perfect
way to do a cambelt, it even has all the pictures you will need and more
to do the job to perfection
I think if I am not mistaken, the timing marrks on the cambelt need
to be at 12 o,clock with a bolt in place to lock the camshaft sprocket
from moving. But the timing marks on the crankshaft need to be at
about 3 o,clock, no bolts needed to lock the crank, as you need to rem-
ove the bottom crank pulley.
On my 93 BX TXi with single=point injection, the way you need to
move the tensioner, to tighten your new belt, was different to Brian,s.
On mine, you use the tensioner to tension your new cambelt, as it has
a square hole in it that you need to put something like an allen key. but
the end has to be square to match the hole in tensioner. I used a metal
spike from one of my old garden lights, the bit that goes into the soil,
and cut it off to lenght, as you don,t have enough room for anything
else.
You will need to remove the engine mounting near the cambelt too,
and support the engine with a piece of hardwood on a trolley jack, as
you will need to raise and lower the engine at different points to gain
access to various different bolts etc.etc.
I found it best to remove the rocker cover so that you can time
the engine up on the correct cylinder. long thin screwdriver in no 1 plug
hole, to get no 1 piston to TDC you need to watch the valves on no 4
cylinder to be on the rock, This ensure that you will have the engine
timed up and firing on no1 cylinder.
Keep your specially made cambelt tensioning tool in your glovebox
for future needs.
The waterpump on these are just bolted in at the bottom of the
engine with a paper gasket that needs replacing aswell, If your in
there doing the cambelt, as I was told by many kind folks on the forum
is best to put a new waterpump and gasket, new tensioner, new
cambelt and do the HP pump belt aswell and the alternater belt too.
One thing I did, but your not forced to do it, I left a message of
thanks to Brian for all his wonderful hard work.
Another thing is that it is a little bit tight for room, but once you
remove the altenator, you can see thing alot better, and if you get
stuck, like I do sometimes I would be the first person to ask a stupid
question, they all on this forum very,very helpful and thoughtfull too.
Hope the Helps.
Good Luck.
Vince.
looks a bit technical. When I did my little astra's all I had to do was take the cover off and slacken the water pump! And I had about 6" to work with (steady now).
