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Discussion Starter · #1 · (Edited)
I've gotten a lot of benefit from this forum, here's my pay-ahead. 1991 Camry V6 Gen 2

The only DIY I found reference to was a dead link; hopefully mine will last a couple of years for those who need it. The intent of this posting is to fill in some of those details that are left out or are unclear in the factory service manual section on this procedure. I don't have a Haynes so can't comment on the info there.

Background: I had a wobbly crank pulley awhile back that concerned me: http://toyotanation.com/forum/t157429.html
A couple of months later I had a catastophic timing belt failure: http://toyotanation.com/forum/t177992.html I'm not sure they're related, but it was the right time to fix both problems.

Here's my first peek at the problem. Notice the steel cables that were once the structural part of the timing belt. Peeking behind the timing belt cover was pretty straight forward. The job took less than 5 minutes and everything was accessible from the top of the car with very little muss or fuss. It took sockets from 10mm to 14mm to access this area.




Here's what was left of the timing belt after I fished it out from around all the pulleys, idlers, and other parts:




Nice!....right?

To top it off, the crankshaft pulley was toast. My working hypothesis is that the wrong kind of pulley puller was used the last time the TB was changed. AutoZone, true the their business model, gave me a jaw-type puller to do the job...absolutely the WRONG tool. Since mine was toast I didn't really care. The Harbor Freight website had a photo of the right kind of gear puller. I took it in to Checker and borrowed the proper puller to take with me to the junkyard to harvest a new crankshaft pulley.

I absolutely LOVE my local PickNPull yard. The gals they have running the checkout stations are completely clueless. Their priceboard says that harmonic balancers are $19.99. Misc pulleys are 12.99. Of course, my part was NOT a harmonic balancer and I got out of there for a few $$ less than most other yards that employ people that know what the hell they're looking at. Anyway, it's always nice to see a pretty female face at the junkyard, flirt a bit, and practice my Spanish.

Oh, yeah, here's a photo of the f'd up Gerry-rigged setup I had to make to get the pulley off the donor car. Seems the fender skirt was in the way and I couldn't turn the pulley. See the note about the siezed engine below.




Getting the pulley off my Camry was a treat of a job. I ended up using allen wrenches and a chunk of rebar to keep the pulley from turning.




Thank goodness I found a Lexus at the junkyard that had a siezed engine and didn't have to worry about that shizzle there in the cold and wet weather today.

I opted for a GatorBack Goodyear timing belt. The Punk at the Checker Auto parts near my work gave me a belt for a 4-cyl engine...so I had to take the oily, greasy belt back to him and ask him to stick it way up.....on the shelf where he got it. Armed with the right length belt I dove into installing the new belt.

Setting the cranshaft gear and the cam gears to the right position was fairly straight forward, after reading the pertinent posts here. Getting the F'in belt onto all the right gears was NOT!

Long story short: remove the tensioner! it gives you ALMOST enough slack to get the belt on the cam gears. Ultimately, I had to put the belt on the foward camshaft gear and under the top idler, and then put a few notches of the belt on the back cam gear and start turning the damned thing with a 17mm wrench, hoping it would all slide onto that back gear in the right orientation.

After numerous failed attempts, 6 skinned knuckles, a slew of swear words that made my non-English speaking Pakistani father-in-law blush, and a lot of persistence...I got the whole damned thing lined up right and the belt in the proper place. I expected to be able to turn the main pulley a couple of times and see the yellow marks on the belt all line up with the important places on the camshafts again...it AIN'T gonna happen unless you have the patience to turn it about 72 times around. The important thing is to watch the dimples in the camshaft pulleys and crank pulley and make sure the all line up every 2 turns or so, regardless of what the yellow marks on the belt are telling you. If you're REALLY anal, count the notches between the right and left cam marks on the belt and verify the same number of notches after a few turns of the main pulley.

Feelings of bliss and an approach to Nirvana overwhelm one when you have the guts to put the key in the ignition and crank...AND the F'n thing actually starts.



I never did get part of the passenger side engine mount out of the car. The part that actually bolts onto the block wouldn't come out of the space between the block and inner fender. I tried moving the engine with respect to the car a couple of times with no noticeable benefit. Ultimately I chose to work around it and leave it loose in there.

As with any DIY posted on the internet, your mileage may vary...and probably will. Hopefully you wont' have to waste an entire weekend figuring all this shizzle out for yourself.

The only consolation is that my next project, assuming I can get this cursed Camry out of my garage, is a 1990 Audi V8 Quattro that won't start. The LORD only knows what can possibly be wrong with that beast. But if the Gods *are* crazy, I should have quite the toy to play with the rest of this dreary Salt Lake City Winter.

Feel free to email questions or comments, punch holes in my method, or cut me into your lottery winnings if you find this usefull.

Cheeers,

Dave
 

· Bullitprooph
1986 MR-2 N/A, 1991 Celica GT-S, 2005 Matrix XR, 2009 Matrix XRS, 2009 Matrix Base
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Holy crap, that belt must have been ancient. "Catastrophic" is the right term for that failure. :eek:

I hope you're replacing it with a Toyota belt. Mine has lasted over 200,000km now and it still hasn't snapped--it still looks good upon close inspection, though I think it's stretching ever-so-slightly.

Good post about the puller--jaw type suck a$$ for most pulleys.
 

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Discussion Starter · #3 · (Edited)
Catastrophic? HELL yes! My Camry has 178k miles, and I could tell the belt had probably been replaced at least once before. All the timing marks were hit with nice yellow paint, a couple of the crucial bolts were stripped, and the bolts on the tensioner showed some wear consistent with the use of SAE tools instead of metric. You gotta love these Utah shade tree mechanics and the local chain parts stores that contribute to the killing of our rust buckets.

There was more than one post I found that detailed a failure scenario that included an acceleration--downshift under load disaster sequence. It was actually kind of cool to experience....if it weren't for that $65 tow charge to get the hunk-o-junk home. I actually considered leaving it ( for good ) half way up that big hill up to the U of U. Ultimately I decided to have it towed home and deal with it.
 

· Bullitprooph
1986 MR-2 N/A, 1991 Celica GT-S, 2005 Matrix XR, 2009 Matrix XRS, 2009 Matrix Base
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You made the right decision--that car's not one to give up on. And now you know more than when you started. Changing a 4-banger belt will be easier, I think you'll find.
 

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Holy snaps, thats the worst I've ever seen a belt. A belt? That was a TP? Looks like that thing gone through a frying and and some.

I heard that the V6 models are a pain to do some work on...I'd love to get a V6 but dang...If i every decide to learn to fix my own car...



Btw, i'm not sure if you know (if you know about then then well pardon me), but one of the picture has (what I think) a torn CV boot. (6~7 pictures from the bottom).



On a side note, this should be sticky :)
 

· Bullitprooph
1986 MR-2 N/A, 1991 Celica GT-S, 2005 Matrix XR, 2009 Matrix XRS, 2009 Matrix Base
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1,490 Posts
My only question is from the info I find on the web this is a non-interference engine. Is this true by anyones experience?

That is correct. The 2VZ-FE engines were designed with non-interference pistons, as were the 3S-FE's (and a lot of other Toyota engines).
 

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Thanks for the GREAT pic's.

My pick up is a straight 4cyl. With no break yet, just alot of noise.

Should be a breeze, I just replaced the harmoinc balancer and SHOULD of done the

TM at the same time. :clap:

How come we get so smart so late!!
Haymon
 

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194 Posts
This is the best DYI I seen (it walks you thru the steps) was written by JerryGiese

Camry and Solara Forum > Gen 3 & 4
My Timing belt change (very detailed, pics) Gen 4by JerryGiese




Camry and Solara Forum > Gen 1 & 2
DIY V6 Timing Belt Replacement (shows a destroy Timing Belt) by Variety=Spice


Camry and Solara Forum > General Camry Discussion
My Timing Belt Job (Pics) 56k go away by Ken4



Camry and Solara Forum > Gen 5 & 6
Changing V6 Timing Belt Pics and the $270 Coil Connector by marc780
Take marc780 info with caution, according TRD VVTi he sometimes give wrong advice. (you can read it in the thread)
 

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Okay, newbie to this car here. I am looking at buying an 89 camry with the 2.5 V6. No records on the timing belt,. It has 160,000 miles.

Is it necessary to pull the crank pulley to change the timing belt?
 

· Bullitprooph
1986 MR-2 N/A, 1991 Celica GT-S, 2005 Matrix XR, 2009 Matrix XRS, 2009 Matrix Base
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1,490 Posts
Tracy, that's a very thorough tutorial...nicely done! Too bad so many of us can barely get past the "remove crank pulley bolt" step! :lol:
 

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1987 Celica ST
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Well I know mine was a little easier because it was not from up North and rusted on. But some PB blaster around the head of it, a prybar holding onto the flywheel from the other side (through the starter hole), and a big breaker bar were all I needed. I find that it helps to hammer the extension/socket combo (on the end of the extension) while they are on the crank bolt to sort of vibrate/break things up. I also have heard of a lot of folks having luck with using the starter or an impact wrench. Best of luck to anyone having trouble with that 19mm devil.
 
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