[Vwdiesel] Timing belt tension

[LBaird119 at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/19/2009 12:57:51 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
tgott at hotmail.com writes:

> What I was told when I got started in the VW diesel was to tension the belt 
> so you can twist it between the cam and pump pulleys by about a 45 degree 
> angle one way or the other. Much looser and the belt can loosen and skip teeth 
> and much tighter and you can shred your belt.

  The twist test was for gas engines.  If you check the newer 
manuals it say to NEVER twist the diesel belts.  Surprisingly 
they don't tend to skip teeth.  Never saw one shreded from 
being tight but it WILL wear out the pump input shaft bushing, 
and cause the belt to walk off or at least to one side thus shredding 
it, but it's from wear caused by overtightening the belt.
  Too tight and you'll hear it "sing" whe it's running especially after 
it's warmed up. 
  Best thign I've found is hard to describe.  First is to way overtension 
it, simply enough to pull ALL the slack to the tensioner, then back off 
and retension.  What you look for is the belt shouldn't feel tight between 
the cam and the pump but it shouldn't be loose enough to have any 
"flop" feel to it either.  Frankly a tad loose is much safer than a tad 
tight.
  I had one come in at the dealer with about 140K on it.  Never 
had been to the dealer since new.  The belt was so loose I couldn't 
believe it hadn't jumped but still, it hadn't.  :-)
   Loren


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