Timing belt tension?? Newbie

[85gti]

I am new to the diesel world and I am really kind of new to working on vw's and I have a question about my timing belt.  I just replaced the head gasket in my 87 turbo diesel and now I am having a few issues.  The car stalled on me today when entering the highway so I popped the hood to take a look and see if my fluids were ok.  Everything was great so I took a quick look at the timing belt and it seemed really loose.  Could this have caused me to stall out?  I did get the car to start after maybe 2 or 3 minutes and it seemed to help if I pulled the timing advance lever.  I also noticed that the belt had some fraying going on.  Is that because it is so loose?  Thanks in advance.  

-Dale

[arb]

Dude, if that belt breaks or jumps timing enough, you will break parts inside your engine. Valves, valve guies, maybe crack the head and/or pistions.  Not good.

You need to replace that belt before that engine is started again. I would first pull the head again to see if there was any valve / pistion contact.

Sounds like your tensioner was not secured. You did replace that too ? ;-)

[jackbombay]

The belt can be fairly loos and not skip, my buddies was slapping the inside of the T_belt cover and it never skipped, BUT you certainly don't want it "loose" at all, tighten the tensioner till the slack is just gone, IMO.

[zukgod1]

I don't have a Bentley sitting here but I think the specs are something like being able to turn the belt 45 deg between pulleys..


Anyone know for sure, I hate to give out bad info.

[dino1]

my belt went loose when the tensioner stud got stripped out, pulled the stud, reset the timing and drove off. when it was loose it had no guts at all

[arb]

I don't have a Bentley sitting here but I think the specs are something like being able to turn the belt 45 deg between pulleys..


Anyone know for sure, I hate to give out bad info.

That's what my Bentley says, 45 degrees.

How much of your new belt is gone ? Did you replace the tensioner too ?

[85gti]

I don't have a Bentley sitting here but I think the specs are something like being able to turn the belt 45 deg between pulleys..


Anyone know for sure, I hate to give out bad info.

That's what my Bentley says, 45 degrees.

How much of your new belt is gone ? Did you replace the tensioner too ?

I didn't replace the tensioner when I did the head gasket.  Should I?  The timing belt is new as of maybe 10xxxkm but now it has some marks and frays on the side of the belt.  I am just curious as to what could have done this so it doesn't happen again when I put a new one back on.  The car does seem a little "gutless" compared to before the incident on the highway earlier today.  I have a feeling that the belt may have loosened off a bit more and is causing it to change the timing at low revs...  

Dude, if that belt breaks or jumps timing enough, you will break parts inside your engine. Valves, valve guies, maybe crack the head and/or pistions.  Not good.

You need to replace that belt before that engine is started again. I would first pull the head again to see if there was any valve / pistion contact.

Sounds like your tensioner was not secured. You did replace that too ? ;-)

I don't think it is anywhere close to breaking but I also have never seen one break before.  I am sure the belt didn't jump too far though (if it did) because the engine once started ran alright.  I also didn't hear any funny noises from the valves hitting the pistons...  

Anyways I just want to thank you guys for being so helpful!  I am learning lots of stuff about vw diesel's just from the 2 weeks I have been frequenting the site.  I hope someday I will be able to help the newbie's with their cars.  Cheers  

[gigaz2]

the engine runs with a tooth off, but thats it.

mine started with the IP 180º off, so getting a vw engine to start is piece of cake.

don't bodge as you are doing, get everything off and do it again, do it once, do it properly.

a 10000km belt isn't new, in my van I swapped a belt that ran 5minutes, I didn't notice and it was scraping a bolt, it would run fine for thousands of miles after I installed it properly... or not.

[Black Smokin' Diesel]

If one of the pulley isn't aligned, the belt could walk on the side of the intermediate shaft pulley and get frayed. It happened to me. Replace the belt, get a new tensionner (thighten it clockwise until you have about 45 degree of deflection between the cam and IP pulley) and time it. Once it's running, look at the belt and see if it walks on the pulleys.

[arb]

Sorry, I mis-understood. I thought you replaced the belt when you replaced the head gasket.

I am betting the tensioner was not torqed to spec, or had some contaminates on it.