Timing Belt Removal

Video Transcript

"In this clip, we're going to talk about the proper service procedure to replace your engine's timing belt and water pump. In this step, we're going to show you how to remove a timing belt from a 2.4 liter Dodge engine. This belt here is our timing belt, and it runs from the crankshaft down here up to the camshafts, and opens and closes the valves in coordination with the pistons. Now, there's a million and one different ways they use to tension the timing belt and what you have to do to remove the timing belt is release that tension. This one has what they call an eccentric style pulley. Now, this is the timing belt tensioner pulley right here, and as you can see, this nut on it is off center and it has a drive here on the top. What we're going to do is break this bolt loose and rotate this drive. Since it's off center, that's going to roll this pulley out of the way; giving us enough slack on the belt to remove it from the sprockets. You just have to break loose the retaining bolt just a little. The drive on this one happens to be the head of a quarter inch ratchet. As you can see, your pulley will roll out of the way. Let me show you the other direction just so you can get a good visual on it. See how it drops down just like so when your belt gets real loose? What you can do then is take and slip it off, right there. You're going to go ahead and remove it all the way around. Any time, you know, and and this is just my opinion; any time you remove the timing belt you should replace it, just being that it's an extremely tough part to get at, and they're relatively cheap. For the labor involved to change this timing belt, it's about a four hundred dollar job as far as labor goes. The part; this one from the local parts store is thirty bucks. Now, the maintenance interval on it is a hundred thousand miles, but if you're at seventy five thousand miles, and you're going to have it off to say like replace your water pump, which is what we're doing on this particular job, it's a good idea to go ahead, and at that point in time, replace the belt as well. And there you go. That is the proper method for releasing the tension on your timing belt, and removing the belt itself."