My t-belt runs off center (solved, here's how)

[rabbitman]

I'm having a problem with the timing belt, it is centered perfect on the camshaft, on the IP it runs almost an eighth inch off the outer edge of the pulley and on the intermediate shaft it is a little more than a eighth inch off of the pulley. I'm guessing the crank pulley centers it then. I held a straight edge across the cam/IP pulleys and it looks like the IP pulley needs to be further out but that doesn't explain why it would be wrong on the int shaft. Is it possible for the IP pulley to be pushed to far onto the shaft? Its gotten worse lately. I have a rebuilt IP so the shaft isn't getting pulled back. I figured someone has a quick easy fix for this :wink: thanks for the help

[coke]

Howdy. I had the same problem with my a2 1990 jetta. It chewed the side of the belt off.

All I had to do was manipulate the pump somewhat. This does alter the timing so you'll want to either have a dial indicator on hand or, as I do, time by ear.

Since your pump is rebuilt, I can't say its the bearings or anything. But, its either the way the pump is sitting on the injection pump bracket, or the bracket itself is bent. And believe me, the brackets can bend.

I believe what I did was force the pump downward and that straightened mine out.  Its complicated to explain, but between manipulating the pump and manipulating the pump bracket you should be able to straighten it out. And I'd throw another t-belt on for safe measure when you get the problem straightened out.

[rabbitman]

My timing belt got so far off I couldn't stand it anymore so I took the belt off and wiggled all the sprockets any ways the IP is junk :x It moves so far you can here stuff inside clunking. I payed $407 in April for the rebuilt IP from a "high quality" repair shop. I found a pump that says 068 130 081C on it, will this fit a 1.6NA? Thanks for the help

[rabbitman]

yeah, I've heard that before and I ran my last IP with the belt way over tightened for 25 or 30,000 miles and the shaft got a little bit sloppy, I got a rebuilt IP 'cause the old one started leaking real bad. With this IP I ran it around 1000 miles and then a real vw mechanic pulled on my belt while I was working on it and was like wow, thats way to tight. So I loosened it up 'till he said it was good. Now 11,000 miles later the pump is junk.

[rabbitman]

Ok I haven't been able to fix this problem for 2 years and after putting in new IP bushings last month it really bothered me that it was still off centered so I messed with it 'till I got it right.


Here's what worked for me:

Lift the high pressure end of the pump up and the belt will move closer to the engine.

I did that a while ago and it partly fixed it, while changing my IM bearing last week and took the opportunity and loosened the IP bracket, actually I loosened just the part that bolts to the belt side of the block. I then pushed the bracket that holds the front of the pump DOWN, tightened up the bolts and viola!

The belt actually tracked on the inside edge of the IP pulley, to make it run centered I loosened the back mount bolt and it gave a little pop meaning the tension on it had been relieved and the belt runs PERFECT .

So if the shaft end of the IP is pushed down or the other end up, the belt will track closer to the block and vice versa .


Hope this helps somebody