Belt Blues
I just finished assembling my N/A GSR motor build, and after running it for a while, my timing belt has moved about a quarter of an inch off of the cam gears. Is this a problem? The timing is still correct but the placement of the belt scares me. Could it be the aftermarket gears?
Kyle Franklin
Eugene, OR
I remember the first time I encountered this problem. I had just finished building my first B-series (a turbo GSR) after having done D-series motors for a few years. When we got it done and broke it in, the belt had moved off the cam gears. I flipped out. I had never seen anything like this happen and I just knew it was something that I had overlooked, even though my buddy (who owned the motor) swore up and down that it was OK and he'd seen it "a bunch of times."
After pulling the motor back out and getting it on the engine stand, I took off all of the timing covers and pulled the belt off. Everything looked OK, so we put it right back together, put the motor back in the car and continued with the break-in period. In about 10 minutes, the belt had moved right back into place. Now my buddy's argument seemed a little more convincing, but I was still wary, so to his discontent, we pulled the motor one last time and checked everything out.
After digging around, looking extensively (in all the wrong places) for the culprit, I was about to give up. I then realized that I had neglected to put the second belt locator washer after the timing gear on the crank. I re-installed the washer, gear, belt, covers, and crank pulley, started her up, and she's still running today. Hmm, I'll bet she needs a timing belt change after all those years-this time, I'll remember both washers.
Tip Of The Hat
I just bought some new coilovers for my Integra, but they were not what I was expecting. They came with just a shock, a threaded spring mount, and a spring. Do I have to use my stock tops? How do I take them off the stock suspension? What about putting them back on?
Erick Dickerson
Cackyville, IN
Most entry-level coilovers will come without the upper spring perch or top hat. High-end race setups will usually come with a uniball-type mount, but that isn't until you get near the $2,000 range
Any time you remove the top hats from suspension you should be very careful. Going about this the wrong way can send a spring coil across the shop, or worse yet, into your assistant's face. A projectile spring or damper can seriously hurt or kill somebody, so do it right.
First, get yourself a set of spring compressors from your local auto parts store. Here in California (and probably the rest of the country), Autozone will rent you the tool for free, so you have no excuse not to use one. The spring compressor grabs onto two coils of the spring, and as you tighten the compressor the coils pack together, leaving room on top to get the top hat off without any preload on it.
If you can, use the compressor to put the new springs on the coilovers. Unfortunately, most linear springs are so closely wound that they cannot receive the grips of the compressor. In this case, thread the spring perch all the way down until it is locked at the lowest setting it can get to. Install the spring and the top hat, and then thread the perch back up to your desired ride height position.
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