Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

If you're a competent DIY'er, I don't think it's that difficult although it helps a lot if you have the right tools... I did mine for the 1st time 'blind'.

Out of interest, where are you in N Devon?? I'm soon to re-tension mine so if you wanted to come watch, you'd be more than welcome.

I'm in Barnstaple, can easily travel up to Bridgwater though when I get my car back from the repair shop (some idiot decided to jump on the bonnet).

I have heard of these three Porsche specialists in your area:

Martin Reed, Independent Porsche Specialist,
Cladivan, Barnstaple, Tel. No. 01271-375696

Andy Moss at Honiton, ex OPC technician
Tel. No. 07762-244477

Oak Tree Garage, Station Rd, Sidmouth, Newton Poppleford,
EX10 0ER, 01395 568498

Paul is Andy the guy Fen used to use?

I've been asking about this chap on pistonheads but nobody seems to be able to tell me where abouts in barnstaple he is. Will have to give him a ring at some point.

Andy Moss is indeed Fen's old indie - in fact, he have me his number although it's never been convenient for him to do my car. I've heard good things about Martin R as well and he was recommended to me by Bert Gear so he can't be that bad!! No knowledge of anyone in Sidmouth; also, I believe there's a chap in Ilminster!?

I'll let you know when I'm about to do mine - that's if you haven't become impatient and shipped it to a specialist by then!!

Spot on.

He seems to be both knowledgeable about our cars, and very reasonable on the labour front because he works from a small non flashy workshop on a farm with low overheads

Mind you, Fen did destroy the engine he built (admittedly at 1.5 bar of boost and a full days dyno testing )

cromwell tools do a belt tension tester at £158 you can buy online, AST4395A TIMING BELT TENSION TESTER. 968,s are automatic so i did,nt need one

I'm in no rush at the moment mate. Would be interested to see what one looks like that is more sorted than mine. Just taken some new pics of mine which I'm uploading at the moment. The list of work grows longer every time I see it.

Hi,
This is a slightly leftfield way of doing your cambelt. If your happy your old belt is tensioned correctly then you can cut off half the belt along its length, then place your new belt over the cogs, then cut off the rest of the old belt then slide your new one on fully. Although it doesn't seem necesssary I would TDC first just in case the belt snaps and leaves you in the dark. You can then apply the twist method to satsfy yourself that at least its good enough to get to a garage to get it tensioned correctly. Although I've found the twist method works for me. Especially as I was quoted £200 for tensioning the belts

just had mine in for a 12k service and asked them (OPC) to check the cambelt tension, they did it as part of the service FOC

Bad way of doing it, the new cam belt will have a different length as it won't have stretched so the adjustments for the old belt will have zero relevance to the new one.
I've heard of quite a few using the 90 Deg twist method & it seems OK, e.g. none of the people who use it have had the motor go bang!
To do just a belt change is around £250,the belts are cheap especially the cam belt.

I don't think this is such a bad way of doing it as the new and old belts will have the same number teeth, so you can be sure you've got them in the right place. Obviously, the new belt will be tighter, so from there it should be relatively easy to back it off until the 90 deg twist method applies (or until it stops whining ).

Crank / cam have timing marks, makes more sense to rely on those.

Rich

Yup & balance shaft marks as well.