That's the cambelt done

[chris.richard]

Fairly easy really. To immobilise the cams, rather than a fancy tool, I wrapped the adjacent parts of the cam sprockets in separate bits of clingfilm, then used the metallic epoxy putty pushed between them to form a plug which could be slid out. This fixed te teeth relative to each other. 20 minutes with a file and angle-grinder and drill cut some 6mm bar to immobilise the flywheel. A tensioner tool can be made from 2 6mm bolts welded onto some angle iron, and a plastic bottle with 2.12L of water is the counterweight. If anybody wants a photo of it, I'll post one.

[rutthenut]

Sounds like a novel, but entirely workable, solution to fixing the cam wheels in place.

I think that another option can be to use a bolt through the camwheel such that it has a couple of nuts that can be adjusted to apply pressure between the wheel and the surface of the head. Lousy description, but something of that sort can be set up.

Having said that, you would need to set up four of these and make sure they were all nice and tight. Your solution sounds easier and possibly more reliable.

And then you went on to the forum to post loads of queries at around midnight!

[chris.richard]

That was while I was having the celebratory ale!

[John]

Well done Chris, sounds brilliantly innovative!
With a few grands worth of jigging and cam phasing tools at work I could fit the Vauxhall V6 cambelt in 40 seconds, and tension it too!

[CorseChris]

Chris,

Looking at that image of the belt and pulleys reminds me of the long threads on the 164 forum about slipped cam timing, particularly on the rear exhaust cam. If I remember right, the distilled wisdom was never rev it from cold, and re-tension after 5k miles of fitting a new belt or regret it!

Again, looking at the image it's easy enough to see why the problem happens in the first place - what where Alfa thinking when they missed the opportunity to relocate that oil pump drive pulley!

An article about the fabrication and use of your toll(!) would make a great contribution for the next newsletter....... :D

[chris.richard]

Originally posted by CorseChris
would make a great contribution for the next newsletter....... :D

Walked into that one, haven't I!:cool: