cambelt change the Fuzz Townsend way

[rutter123]

Was watching an old episode of Car S.O.S and Fuzz was changing a cambelt on a Mazda MX5, simply by cutting the belt in half along its entire length and slipping the front half off the pulleys, this then allows enough space to slip the new belt on the pulleys pushing the old half belt off the back. I suspect this is only possible on a BX if the bottom pulley is removed and you are not changing the tensioner or water pump, nonetheless makes it a lot easier and loosing timing is not an issue. Just a case of re tensioning the belt.

[Vanny]

Somewhere on YouTube there is a video of a guy changing a belt that way with the engine idling and nothing more than a Swiss army knife, it still blows my mind.

I've done it the Fuzz way once (no running engine), it works on an XUD

[rutter123]

I've not tried this method but will on the next belt change the tensioner idler and pump were done last change, so hopefully won't need changing, I've always used a couple of bolts in the pulleys and a hex key in back of flywheel.