Motor Rattle

[Petros]

if you got the front pulley off, it is a good time to replace the timing belt since you are most of the way there anyway. the timing belt is not too costly for these cars.

seals are a good thing to do as well (put motor oil on the inside lip so it does not start up dry). the water pump is an easy change out any time, so unless you need one that can wait until it is time.

[rocketscience]

I figured as much and got a belt and tensioner already. I found a belt kit on amazon listed as a continental elite belt kit, which I learned are rebranded goodyear gator belts that are supposed to be be great belts, and it was only $9. What showed up was indeed a goodyear belt in a goodyear box with a very good tensioner. It's now $34 but if anybody is looking for a timing belt I'd check the price on it, they're probably trying to clear the goodyear stock. This is it:

http://www.amazon.com/Continental-Elite ... iming+belt

[Petros]

That is a great price on the kit. You can get the belts from Rock auto for only about $8 plus shipping, they are about $18 from Autozone and Napa. I have never had to replace the tensioner, the one aftermarket one I put in once, that came as part of a kit, started squealing after three months, so I put the factory one back in and I am still running on it at about 380k miles.

[rocketscience]

Heh well maybe I'll keep the original on there and keep the other as a spare! The original seems fine. When I got the covers off I noticed that the timing belt was way too far forward on the gears and was hanging off of them probably 1/4 to 3/8." When I pulled the upper cover before it was also too far forward and I tried to wiggle it back. Is there an adjustment I need to make to keep it from sliding forward?

[xirdneh]

is the shield on the lower gear missing
it slides on after the gear and it keeps the belt in line
might have to remove crank pulley and lower belt cover to find out

[rocketscience]

Yep, definitely no belt guide next to the gear.

[rocketscience]

Anybody have a part number for that? I'm pretty far from the nearest junkyard. Or if anyone has a spare that they don't need anymore I'd buy it off you!

[Notmikeb]

Toyota part # seems to be 1356615010

http://toyotaparts.lagrangetoyota.com/p ... 15010.html

Seems to be available too. And cheap!!

[rocketscience]

Whoop! Awesome, thanks Notmike!

[Petros]

I think the same part was used on all of the A series engines, including the twin cams and efi engines. I wonder who took that engine apart and for got to put that back on before you. did it not occur to them that there is a reason Toyota put that part in the engine? It did not occur to them when that part was left over that it was supposed to be installed?

[xirdneh]

in one of my infamous tercel moments i put that shield on backwards
several thousand miles later when i removed the top timing belt cover (wife hit a deer)
the belt was eaten away about 1/4 of an inch

[rocketscience]

I guess I'm not that surprised, the belt was off by a tooth. Oh well, I have a brand new belt and the local dealership ordered the guide for me for $2.44 and it's already there.

Yesterday I replaced the crank and cam seals, put on a new timing belt and tensioner, drained the rest of the old coolant and resealed the bypass coolant tube and put in a new thermostat. I found o-rings for the bypass tube from NAPA, they were size #112 as reported somewhere on here and only cost $1.20 for the pair. Today I get to put it all back together, throw in a new radiator and maybe put in new strut cartridges. These cars are really easy and enjoyable to work on!

I found this post by ARCHINSTL showing a mess free way to drain the coolant from the engine block:

viewtopic.php?t=10493

I didn't have any tubing like that so I used a length of 2" radiator hose I had kicking around and cut a piece out of the top of it so I could get a wrench on the bolt. I wedged it down by the inner tie rod boot and it stayed in place while I drained it. Worked great!

[rocketscience]

Here's a follow up: I drained my dirty oil from my second short oci yesterday (had a quart of mmo and a little atf in it) and filled it up with Delo 400 15w-40. I decided to skip the STP and just see how it does with the heavier oil, and the rattle is definitely a lot better, both quieter and lasting for a shorter amount of time while driving. After just a few minutes it goes away entirely.

The Delo seems to be really good oil, I found a fresh oil analysis of it here: http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/forums/ub ... s/476927/1. Apparently it has decent amounts of moly, zinc and boron in it and was highly recommended. I've used it in my TDI before but didn't know much about it.

I also just installed a new-to-me junkyard driveshaft, the old one had a bad u-joint and the previous owner had just pulled it off. At the same time I drained and refilled the transmission and rear diff. I read a lot about how different people refill the fluid with pumps, etc, but that the thing that makes it difficult seems to be that it can be pretty thick, especially if its chilly out. So I stuck the bottles into a bucket and poured hot water into it and let them sit there for a while, shook em up a couple times and refilled it with hot water once so I could get em as warm as possible. Then I just used a hose and funnel going from the engine bay to the middle fill hole while leaving the front plug out so there wouldn't be a vacuum (the hose I used was a very snug fit, I actually had to trim the end of it a little to get it in there). The oil poured really easily, even the quart of 85w-140 that I mixed in, and it didn't take much time or effort at all to do. I filled the diff in the same way through the wheel well. And instead of stopping to look for the oil coming from the fill hole I just listened for the sound of dripping on the oil pan below, closed the front plug and then filled it to just over 4 quarts. Can't wait to finally get to try the 4wd!

[rocketscience]

I've been driving this thing around a bit more, moved up to Olympia from Newport and its been doing pretty good, lots better on hills and getting around 31 mpg. That said the racket is as loud as ever, could be from the colder weather but now it's pretty loud at idle for a minute or so and is continuing to do it on revs, I don't think it ever goes away entirely in first and second. I bought it so my girlfriend would have something to drive especially when I'm out of town and she doesn't like the sound of it, so I found a parts car in the area that had the motor replaced with a new one about 100k ago that I'm gonna go look at tomorrow, owner says it started clicking and now won't go into gear or will shift but won't engage or something like that, I won't know till I get there but it'd be great if it was just a clutch cable or something, I'm guessing clutch or dist or something like that. I'm gonna check the compression on the motor and then tow it down here, unless I can figure it out real fast, and swap the motor soon.

[irowiki]

do you mean it is louder it I don't when you first started up for a minute or two if so that is normal