Just replaced the timing belt.

[mikec03]

I have a 95 subaru with 207 k miles. No good history. It was a mistake to buy it but that's another story. I replaced all the pulleys and water pump as well as the belt.

 

1. All but one of the cover bolts broke off in the inter covers. I eventually put them back on with tie raps.

 

2. I used the starter with a 1/2" breaker bar to loosen the crankshaft bolt. It worked fine.

 

3. I loosened the camshaft bolts before taking off the belt. I jamed the engine through the flywheel inspection opening with an 8", 3/8" screwdriver.

 

4. I used the lislie shaft puller #58430 to remove the leaking camshft seal. It worked fine. It's a little hard to understand until you use it. I actually pushes in and destroys the shaft side of the seal before hooking it and levering it out.

 

5. I put on the camshaft pulley by wrapping it with part of the old timing belt and using a $6 harbor freight chain strap to hold it.

 

6. I didn't change the crankshaft seal or torque in the bolts of the oil pump. I guess time will tell if I made a mistake not doing that.

 

7. The old belt was cracked every 1/8" and was a subaru OEM. I guess that it had been on there for at least 80K miles. I would hate to think that it had been on for 140K miles but it looked like it.

 

8. I didn't have any problem lining up the new timing belt. I did have a problem getting the belt on the cogged pulley even without installing the bottom smooth pulley. I put the bottom smooth pulley on last which turned out to be easy.

 

9. I didn't replace the the tensioner. It seemed Ok. I took 6 min to compress it versus the subaru recommendation of 3 min.

 

10 I didn't replace the coolant thermostat. What can go wrong with a bimetalic device?

 

11. I was surprised how easily it was to hold the flywheel while putting 130 ftlbs on the crankshaft bolt. I did have a big screwdriver however. I used a new crankshaft bolt for later year subaru's but it looked identical to the old

one. The original design for the 95 subaru only calls for 60-70 ftlb of torque.

 

12. I didn't have any problems with filling the new coolant. The front wheels were elevated about 3" over the back ones. I filled the engine through the top hose and then the radiator. I ran it without a cap for a few minutes after heating up but very few bubbles came out.

 

Hopefully the above is helpful to someone. I have to emphasize that I couldn't have done this without the advice and information on this forum. Thanks to all.

[johnceggleston]

you are good, all rights, no wrongs.

 

good work.

 

enjoy.

[avk]

Can I ask, just out of curiosity, why replace camshaft seals but not the crankshaft seal, if the crankshaft seal wears twice as fast?

[mikec03]

I don't have a good reason for not replacing the crank seal. Other then, it wasn't leaking and I'm risk adverse. I didn't know what trouble I would get into by fooling with the oil pump. If I was going to replace the seal, I would follow advice here and take the oil pump off as well.

[avk]

Replacing the crank seal is actually more risk-proof than the cam seals, because the crank seal simply bottoms out in the bore. As to removing the oil pump, it's mostly an independent operation, because the seal is easier to install with the pump already in place.