'90 Audi 80 Timing Belt - Done

[Michael Spiers <mikes@specnet.com>]

This is one for the archives.  I get the feeling there are'nt many 80 4 bangers
on this list, and those who have 'em either have'nt needed to have it done yet
or had it done somewhere else.  The proceedure is relatively straight forward,
provided you know what you're doing (which I did not...)
There are less things to take off on the 80's than the 5000's - the radiator is
front mounted on the 80's, so taking the grill and bumper off like on the
5000's is worthless.  Taking off the bottom skid plate (or whatever that big
plastic shield is) and removing the electric fans is a neccesity, but childs
play.  The next step, removing the hydraulic pump belt, isn't quite so easy.  I
have no tips on this, I loostened every bolt on the dumb thing then pulled and
yanked like crazy to get the belt off.  The AC belt is easy but confusing.  The
way to remove the AC belt is to remove the frst two bottom pulleys on the
crankshaft.  The middle pulley is actually not a pulley, but two halves of a
pulley squished together, with about ten shims in between to adjust the
thickness of the pulley.  As you loosten the four bolts holding the pulley on,
the two halves separate and the belt slips closer to the crankshaft, thus
loostening the belt.  But you still can't take the belt off the car, it's stuck
on the front motor mount.  More to follow.  Take the first two pulleys off,
then go after the alternator belt.  Leave the alternator belt on untill you are
ready to remove the last pulley.  With the alternator belt in place, loosten
(but  don't remove) the three bolts on the water pump.  Then loosten and remove
the alternator belt, and take the three bolts the rest of the way out and
remove the water pump pulley.  Last, remove the four bolts holding the last
pulley to the crankshaft, then remove the pulley.  Now that you have the three
crank pulleys out of the way, remove the two bolts that hold the front motor
mount on, then remove the motor mount.  You can now remove the AC belt.  Before
going any further, set your motor to TDC by spinning the crankshaft (use a
breaker bar and a 19mm socket) until you see a LINE (not a dot) on the flywheel
when looking through the eyehole on the bellhousing.  Line this line up with
the leading edge of the metal shield that is half covering the eyehole from
below, then take the covers for the timing belt off, loosten the idler pulley,
then remove the timing belt.
Installation is the reverse of disassembly, just be sure you have all three
timing components lined up correctly.  The LINE on the flywheel should be flush
with the leading edge of the metal shield.  The dot on the rear of the camshaft
sprocket should line up with the very top of the METAL (remove the plastic
semi-circle) rear timing cover.  The distributor rotor (remove the distributor
cap so you can see it) should be lined up with the ridge on the top of the
distributor housing.  There is a plastic shield under the rotor, that has a
small nitch in it where the ridge sticks through.  If you are standing next to
the drivers side of the car, looking at the distributor housing, the notch is
at about the one o'clock possition.  Having the VW/Audi timing tensioner is a
MUST, use it to trun the tensioner clockways until the belt is tight, but not
too tight.  Audi says tight is when you can rotate the belt 90 degrees between
the cam sprocket and the distributor sprocket, but the rear timing cover is in
the way, so use your best judgement.  If it's too tight, the pulleys will
squeel.  At this point, I made sure the timing was correct by starting her up
(don't forget to replace the distributor cap) but don't let it run too long,
you are running straight off the cars battery.  Put her back together and
you're ready to go!

-- 
-Mike
87 5000CS TQ
84 5000S (2,000 miles away and a mile high)
90 80 (in many pieces no longer!)