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I just replaced timing belt, tensioner pulley, idler pulley and water pump on a 99 AWD with Antilock brakes and AC. Here are some helpful tips for the archives:
0. Remove battery and battery holder plate (10mm socket).
1. You do not need to drain or disconnect the power steering reservoir or lines. Simply lift up the plastic reservoir from it's clip, remove the bolt holding the hardline pipe from the fenderwall/wheel well (10mm socket) and push the whole assembly back towards the firewall.
2. Remove the alternator and alternator/AC belt
3. Remove 3 bolts holding antilock brake module to fenderwall (12 or 14mm socket) as well as the two bolts holding the brake lines to the wheel well (10mm socket)
4. Remove sparkplugs and plug holes with shop towel
5. Jack up front right corner and remove wheel and plastic under-engine panel (10mm socket)
6. Support engine with 2nd jack. Put block of wood on 2nd jack and lift at oil pan. Just take up weight.. to hold motor in place...do not lift Rav4,.
7. Remove right side engine mount (3 bolts to fender wall 14mm socket). The back 14 mm behind the antilock brake box is best attacked from the fender side with those cheap ratcheting wrenches (not the nice ones). Remove the nuts and bolts connecting the engine mount to the engine mount bracket on the front face of the motor. A deep socket is best for this (12mm or 14mm can't remember). One of the nuts is attacked from below. For the underside nut, use some long extensions on a 3/8" ratchet. Lift out engine mount. Yeah it is a pain but it will come out between the old alternator location and the antilock brake module. You may have to loosen the AC tubing brackets in the area.
8. Loosen the PS pump and slide it toward the front of the Rav. (14mm socket with universal joint attachment helps). Remove PS belt.
9. Take engine out of gear and use a 19mm socket to rotate motor at damper pulley bolt. Align tick on damper pulley with "0" advance mark on the plastic lower cover's graduation. NOTE the triangle ~ 1 " to the left of the 0/5/10..etc gauge. This triangle is the 45degree BTDC mark where you later set the belt tensioner. If you are uncertain of the timing pulley's accuracy for true TDC at "0" (they can delaminate and slip) simply put a very long screwdriver or 3/8" long socket extender in sparkplug hole #1 and rotate the engine. Hold the long device on the top of the pistion and use the 19mm socket to turn the damper pulley back and forth over 0 and make sure the piston is at its highest point when the damper indicates "0" .
10. Remove the bracket at the front face of the motor that attaches to the engine mount. WARNING THIS IS TRICKY. The problem is that there is little clearance between the fender wall and the three 14mm bolt heads that hold the bracket to the motor. If you stick a 14mm socket on these bolts, it may be diffficult to get off due to the tight spot and lack of clearance and webbing cast into the bracket. Here are some ideas to help you keep/get out of trouble.
-A. The goal is to crack the bolts loose with the socket... do not try to extract fully as the bolt will drive the socket into the fender wall.
A. Use a shallow 14mm socket. You may wish to simply sacrifice an old 14mm and grind it down. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND YOU GRIND DOWN A 14mm SOCKET AFTER NOW HAVING CHANGED TWO TIMING BELTS.
B. Try to remove the bolts with a box-end 14mm (tough to do)
C. Use penetrating oil to reduce workload.
D. If you are stuck in there with a 14mm and are tired of cursing and are now reading this, here is what you do... use a small screw driver to flick the direction latch on the ratchet and tighten in the bolt then work/wiggle the ratchet to get it loose. Lowering or raising the motor can help a lot here!!!!! You can also twist the motor a littte to... be patient... you can work the socket off... I did this twice!
11. You have to now remove that hefty "well cursed" engine mount bracket. It comes out best from below. Push the PS pump all the way to the back to help. Yeah this job stinks too. Lowering the motor a little helps.
11b. Remove the damper pulley. I simply put the RAV in 5th gear and stuck a pick-axe handle through the wheel bolts to prevent it from turning. I used a breaker bar and 19mm socket to break the damper pulley bolts. A pipe on the end of a ratchet will give mechanical leverage. My pulley was easy to remove by hand. If yours is stuck.. DO NOT PULL OR PRY AT THE OUTER EDGE (IT IS CAST AND CRACKS EASY). Use a correct puller. Note: There are 4 holes in the harmonic damper/pulleys. Two opposite hole are M6 with 1mm pitch (don't know the other two but they seem different).
12. Remove the bolts holding the top plastic timing cover (I recall 4 of these longer bolts... one is in the back near the engine mount bracket so look well. (10mm)
13. Remove the bolts holding the lower timing cover. (10mm socket). Remove both covers from below.
14. Time belts swap:
1. Place the lower plastic cover in place (no need to bolt it).
2. Place damper pulley and bolt on crank (no need to bolt it tight at all)
3. Put RAV in neutral
4. With all plugs out, rotate damper to "0" degrees (align damper "tick" with "0" mark)
5 Follow the toyota instruction pictures and look through the hole drilled in one of the CAM pulley arms and ensure it aligns with the rectangular tick mark on the head of the engine. (Note, my motor had two marks!!! a circle punched dimple and a rectangular tick. After a lot of trouble, I learned it was the rectangular tick that Toyota uses!!)
6. Use a white paint pen/grease pen/china marker and put a dot on the cam (CAM) gear outer edge as close to the engine as possible and place another dot on the head of the engine as close to the cam dot as possible,these two dots are for emergency alignment and make it easy to get out of trouble. When in trouble, just align these dots to get cam pulley in TDC location. TIP: On my 98 RAV, I noticed a bump in the cam gear's inner lip that is near the top of the motor when at TDC. I used this to line up against a mark I made on the engine.
7. Choose a tooth on the CAM gear and mark it with white paint. Then mark the belt teeth on each side of this tooth with a white dot (mark on the outer edge of the belt as the pulleys will remove any marks on the back belt surface.
8. Choose a tooth on the CRANK gear and mark it white. Then mark the belt teeth on each side of this tooth with a white dot (mark on the outer edge of the belt as the pulleys will remove any marks on the back belt surface). Note which marks are for cam and which are for crank..
9. Loosen the tensioner pulley and push it down to stretch the spring and remove tension from the belt. Then lock it in this position. (14mm socket)
10. Remove timing belt and hold against new belt and copy the 4 white dots to the new belt. You can count the belt teeth separating them as a check.
11. Replace the idler and tensioner pulleys, water pump, thermostat, seals, etc if required. (Drain rad if changing pump). You need to loosen and drop AC compressor if changing water pump.)
Tips:
- Take time to disconnect wires around AC, alternator.
- I used tensioner and idler pulley torque of 40 ft-lbs
- Use flat screw driver to pry/twist between old water pump and connection to tubes/flange below plug #1 to break water pump loose after removing bolts
- Remove only required water pump bolts ~3
- Toyota water pump and housing comes with all seals including thermostat seal
12. Place the new timing belt in place and align the dots.
13. Loosen the tensioner bolt enough so that the spring pulls the belt tight.
14. If you have not removed the plugs do it now. Also ensure transmission is in neutral.
15. Place lower plastic housing in place (no bolts) and install damper hand tight and turn motor using 19mm ratchet for 1 and 7/8 turns (DO NOT TURN CCW AS BELT CAN JUMP) . Align the 45 degree BTDC "lonely" triangle with the tickmark in the pulley. At this point of 45 degrees BTDC, The springs in the head will now be at maximum resistance causing the tensioner to be stretched at its maximum. Lock down the tensioner bolt (14mm with torque ~ 35 to 40 ft-lbs). FYI if the belt tension is too tight, the bearings in the idler pulleys will whine when the engine comes up to temperature and stretches the belt from thermal expansion of the block and head). I know LOL.
16. Continue rotating the damper pulley for another 2 and 1/8 turns (thus the motor has turned 4 complete revolutions and should be now at TDC). Complete this rotation with the damper at "0" and verify the cam hole is aligned with the rectangular fixed tick mark. (FYI The engine is a 4 stroke so the crank has to rotate twice before the Cam completes 1 full turn...each crank rotation from 0 is a downstroke and upstroke.).
17. Before you put it all back together, do a test run by starting the car with the battery only. If it starts you are good to go. (Don't forget rad fluid, removing anything that can be thrown, etc). The PS pump, AC, Alternator, timing belt covers, engine mount are not needed when test running
Put it all back together.
Tips:
- Torque for 19mm crank nose bolt that fastens the harmonic damper/pulley is 110 ft-lbs according to we source.
- Lift engine up and down to fit parts close to the fire wall and to remove jammed nuts.
Note if you removed the pump, you should have aslo drained the rad fluid. As well, there is a pipe running across the front (relative to RAV body) of the motor that has an O-ring compression fit into the water pump body. Removing this take a lot of pulling and elbow grease... be strong and endure LOL!
IF THE BELT IS BROKEN OR YOU SKIPPED THE TIMING WHEN SWAPPING TIMINING BELTS DON'T WORRY AND DO THIS:.
1. Put belt on with lower plastic cover in place
2. Set the damper pulley to 0 degrees (TDC)
3. Loosen belt tensioner, push it away and tighten tensioner bolt so that tensioner is not taking up tension.
4. Remove the belt from the cam gear and tuck it under cam gear (belt is still on crank gear at this time and lower plastic cover is in place.)
5. Rotate cam gear so that the drilled hole in cam gear arm aligns with the rectangular tick mark (use mirror to inspect). Use a 14mm ratchet to turn CAM at CAM nose.
6. Install belt over cam and loosen belt tensioner 14mm bolt so that tensioner takes up slack in belt.
7. Repeat steps 14/15/16 just above this.
8. IMPORTANT NOTE. If the motor does not start, it is possible that the cam and crank are out by 180degrees. NO PROBLEM. Here is how you resolve this:
A. Turn crank's 19mm bolt so that damper tick is at "0" and that cam gear hole is aligned with rectangular tick.
B. Now turn Crank 1 full revolution so that damper tick is aligned with "0" but cam gear hole is not aligned with rectangular tick
REPEAT CAM GEAR HOLE IS NOT ALIGNED
C. Loosen belt tensioner then push it down and lock in place so as to remove belt tension.
D. Pull belt off CAM gear and use 14mm socket or box end wrench to rotate cam so that the hole in cam gear aligns with rectangular tick mark (use mirror to inspect)..
E. Reinstall timing belt over cam gear , let tensioner take up tension then follow steps 14/15/16 just above this.
GOOD LUCK