Tomorrow I plan to replace the 23 year old timing belt on my 1.1 carb Metro. I have bought a "Gates" kit which contains a belt and new idler/spring/bolt assembly.

Any suggestions kindly accepted.

Re-Carbed wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2017 6:30 pm Tomorrow I plan to replace the 23 year old timing belt on my 1.1 carb Metro. I have bought a "Gates" kit which contains a belt and new idler/spring/bolt assembly.

Any suggestions kindly accepted.

**UPDATE** - job done.
Firstly, the belt on the car turned out to be a Gates replacement one not the original, but on inspection it was cracking and the idler pulley bearing was worn (quite a lot of movement). The water pump bearing had no movement so I left it in.

Only issues during replacement were undoing and tightening the crankshaft pulley bolt. This required a large breaker bar and locking up the wheel studs with a large piece of wood braced against the road. The only way to re-torque it on reassembly was to stand at the front of the car and push the torque wrench down with my foot - 160nM is a lot. The large wooden bracing bar was needed again bracing the wheel studs against the road but the other way around this time.

The three long bolts securing the engine mounting bracket to the engine required me to jack the engine up and down a bit with some rubbery complaints from the other mounting! Oh, and of course removing and replacing the alternator vee belts was a pain as the mechanism is (it seems to me) unecessarily complicated. So that's done and it is my first ever timing belt replacement. It took two hours of sweat but I think anyone could do it who has the tools -

Trolly jack, axle stands, Large and small socket sets, breaker bar, torque wrench, set of 1/2" drive allen keys to enable you to re-torque the idler back plate,