Tools needed to change timing belt

[Jason Mc New]

Hi group,

Vehicle is a 97 Impreza 2.2, AWD, (North America), automatic, air, power
steering, w/ 33,500 miles. I consider myself to be an accomlished mechanic
but I've never had to do anything to this particular car. I've read some
posts saying that a special tool is needed to get the crank pulley off of
this car? Is that true? Do I need any special tools at all to change the
camshaft timing belts on this car?

Incidentally, the vehicle is totally pristine and is going up on E-bay soon
if anyone is interested. It's located in Arlington, VA. I'm getting 4 new
tires put on and bringing all the service up to date. Car has been garaged
most of its life and is 100% un-bastardized.

TIA,



Jason

 

[Jason Mc New]

60,000 miles or 60 months, which ever comes first. The car is 7 years, or
84 months old. Thus, the belt is overdue by 24 months. Just going by the
book. I really don't want to do it. Hopefully someone in here can convince
me not to, hahhah. I want to advertise the car as being "perfect" however.

Thanks,


Jason

 

[Rob Aries]

I'm curious as to why a car with 33.5K miles would need a timing belt?

 

[Mickey]

Hi group,

Vehicle is a 97 Impreza 2.2, AWD, (North America), automatic, air, power
steering, w/ 33,500 miles. I consider myself to be an accomlished mechanic
but I've never had to do anything to this particular car. I've read some
posts saying that a special tool is needed to get the crank pulley off of
this car? Is that true? Do I need any special tools at all to change the
camshaft timing belts on this car?

Incidentally, the vehicle is totally pristine and is going up on E-bay soon
if anyone is interested. It's located in Arlington, VA. I'm getting 4 new
tires put on and bringing all the service up to date. Car has been garaged
most of its life and is 100% un-bastardized.

TIA,



Jason

Well you do need someway to prevent the crank from turning while your break the
crank bolt free. With man x-mission you can sometimes put the car in high gear
and set the brake. It takes another approach with AT.

Some chain and independent auto parts stores have service tools to lend. I'm
about ready to replace the belt on my 2000 and noted Autozone list a tool for
the job. I'm not real familiar with the 2.2 engine and if you're not going to
touch the water pump and or oil pump, most likely only issues is removing and
replacing the crank bolt for the front pulley.

Mickey

 

[Verbs Under My Gel]

Hi group,

Vehicle is a 97 Impreza 2.2, AWD, (North America), automatic, air, power
steering, w/ 33,500 miles. I consider myself to be an accomlished mechanic
but I've never had to do anything to this particular car. I've read some
posts saying that a special tool is needed to get the crank pulley off of
this car? Is that true? Do I need any special tools at all to change the
camshaft timing belts on this car?

Incidentally, the vehicle is totally pristine and is going up on E-bay soon
if anyone is interested. It's located in Arlington, VA. I'm getting 4 new
tires put on and bringing all the service up to date. Car has been garaged
most of its life and is 100% un-bastardized.

TIA,



Jason

How 'bout putting a socket and longish breaker bar on the crankshaft
pulley fastener in such an orientation that when the starter is
"twitched" (with the coil pack disconnected, of course) the breaker
bar will be up against some immovable object (frame rail, perhaps?).
Has anyone tried this?

 

[Richard Paquette]

You will nead the exact puller to remove the crank pulley, if you try
like me the first time, to use an universal puller you will broke the
side of your aluminium pulley.

Have fun

Richard

 

[Jim Stewart]

How 'bout putting a socket and longish breaker bar on the crankshaft
pulley fastener in such an orientation that when the starter is
"twitched" (with the coil pack disconnected, of course) the breaker
bar will be up against some immovable object (frame rail, perhaps?).
Has anyone tried this?

I considered it. I decided my testicles weren't
quite big enough

 

[Jason Mc New]

I thought about this actually, and know people that have done this on other
vehicles. I decided against it given the pristine condition of the vehicle.

Jason

 

[Rob Aries]

I get it now, thanks! Didn't realize timing belts also had a "time" to
be changed as well as mileage!

 

[Mickey]

Hi group,

Vehicle is a 97 Impreza 2.2, AWD, (North America), automatic, air, power
steering, w/ 33,500 miles. I consider myself to be an accomlished mechanic
but I've never had to do anything to this particular car. I've read some
posts saying that a special tool is needed to get the crank pulley off of
this car? Is that true? Do I need any special tools at all to change the
camshaft timing belts on this car?

Incidentally, the vehicle is totally pristine and is going up on E-bay soon
if anyone is interested. It's located in Arlington, VA. I'm getting 4 new
tires put on and bringing all the service up to date. Car has been garaged
most of its life and is 100% un-bastardized.

TIA,
Jason

I had mentioned in another post about loaner tools and was about ready to
replace my timing belt. Well, someone else dictated the time and it was
yesterday. Went to town and before getting back my radiator sprung a leak,
crimp connection to lower tank. Sure hope it didn't get too over heated.

On to the timing belt issue. Autozone reported they had a tool for removing the
pulley but all it was was a small puller. What I did and work well was I
inserted 2 short bolts in the holes the spanner uses and used a pry bar. Using
a long breaker bar with a deep 22mm socket and the aforementioned bolts/pry bar
I positioned handles below horiz so I could lift. Between me and my grown son
we were able to break the bolt free without much difficulty, it is hard as spec
torque is 135' lbs.

Rest of job was pretty much routine. Here are 2 things I noted that might be of
help to other doing this for the first time. If/when replacing the water pump
there is a rubber "gasket" on the left side one wants to remove from the old
pump and use with the new. It appear to be nothing more than a dust shield to
help keep out crud in the belt chamber. Unfortunately I didn't notice this
until I was done. Right now I'm not going to disassemble for this. The second
item and one that still has got me wondering and somewhat concerned over is; I
found the timing mark on the left pulley possibly not in the correct position.
The manual mentioned the number of teeth on the timing belt as 40.5, the mark on
my pulley was half way between being in a valley and top of tooth. The marking
on the belt wasn't much better. I ended up positioning so timming mark on
pulley was as close to the notch on the belt cover as I could. It is in a
position so that when the belt is tensioned it is slightly late of TDC. Moving
the belt one notch the other direction would place it further advanced than it
is now retarded. Damn, wish I knew more about this. Oh, one other thing, as I
was removing the belt, as soon as I removed the toothed idler, the auto belt
tension idler pulled on the belt and the left cam rotated CC. Watch out for this.

Hope this helps others.

Mickey

 

[Jim Stewart]

I had mentioned in another post about loaner tools and was about ready
to replace my timing belt. Well, someone else dictated the time and it
was yesterday. Went to town and before getting back my radiator sprung
a leak, crimp connection to lower tank. Sure hope it didn't get too
over heated.

On to the timing belt issue. Autozone reported they had a tool for
removing the pulley but all it was was a small puller. What I did and
work well was I inserted 2 short bolts in the holes the spanner uses and
used a pry bar. Using a long breaker bar with a deep 22mm socket and
the aforementioned bolts/pry bar I positioned handles below horiz so I
could lift. Between me and my grown son we were able to break the bolt
free without much difficulty, it is hard as spec torque is 135' lbs.

Rest of job was pretty much routine. Here are 2 things I noted that
might be of help to other doing this for the first time. If/when
replacing the water pump there is a rubber "gasket" on the left side one
wants to remove from the old pump and use with the new. It appear to be
nothing more than a dust shield to help keep out crud in the belt
chamber. Unfortunately I didn't notice this until I was done. Right
now I'm not going to disassemble for this. The second item and one that
still has got me wondering and somewhat concerned over is; I found the
timing mark on the left pulley possibly not in the correct position. The
manual mentioned the number of teeth on the timing belt as 40.5, the
mark on my pulley was half way between being in a valley and top of
tooth. The marking on the belt wasn't much better. I ended up
positioning so timming mark on pulley was as close to the notch on the
belt cover as I could. It is in a position so that when the belt is
tensioned it is slightly late of TDC. Moving the belt one notch the
other direction would place it further advanced than it is now
retarded. Damn, wish I knew more about this. Oh, one other thing, as I
was removing the belt, as soon as I removed the toothed idler, the auto
belt tension idler pulled on the belt and the left cam rotated CC.
Watch out for this.

Before you remove the old belt, it helps to put new marks
on it with "white-out" or white paint. That way you have
a reality check when things don't quite go by the manual.

 

[Mickey]

Mickey wrote:



Before you remove the old belt, it helps to put new marks
on it with "white-out" or white paint. That way you have
a reality check when things don't quite go by the manual.

This morning I spoke with an independent Subaru mech and asked about the timing
mark issue and he said that what I saw was not that uncommon.

The new belt I put on had marks on it and was same issue, mark on belt and
pulley not perfectly matched. Marks on belt align up better than pulley.

Mickey

 

[Jim Stewart]

This morning I spoke with an independent Subaru mech and asked about the
timing mark issue and he said that what I saw was not that uncommon.

The new belt I put on had marks on it and was same issue, mark on belt
and pulley not perfectly matched. Marks on belt align up better than
pulley.

I believe it. When I did mine, they seemed to be 1/2
of a mark or so off as well.

 

[Bent Mt. Dave]

Crank pulley, Right or left handed threads,.