Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

OK, further to my earlier post, I have found something else wrong with my recently purchased pride-and-no-joy-yet. Since it has stopped raining I thought I'd take it out, but decided to check the belts first to reassure myself of their condition.

I was greeted with the sight of the balance belt curled up in the bottom of the cover. Gulp. The cambelt is intact. I really don't know what to do now. I daren't even start it to check it is OK. I drove it back from Birmingham to Plymouth on Thursday, and a quick run about town on Friday. Would I have damaged anything? It's pretty deformed so it must have been like it for a while. The car is now in my garage. Still looking beautiful, but silent.

Is this a DIY job? I have rebuilt aircooled VW engines in the past, replaced gearboxes and suspension etc, so is this feasible for a newbie? I think the nearest Indy Porsche mechanic is in Honiton which is over 50 miles away - I'm reluctant to chance it now. Is it worth getting a local (ie Plymouth) mechanic to do it?

Any suggestions and advice very welcome. Any offers of help will have me falling at your feet...

Looking at the positive things:
1) It's not completely broken yet.
2) I can fit a surfboard in it.
3) I now have time to repair the stitching on the steering wheel and the temp gauge...

Photos: 1st one is what greeted me when I took the cambelt cover off. 2nd one is what it looks like with the balance belt bits removed. 3rd is the balnce belt.

Wow you are very very lucky, genrally when the belt breaks it'll whip the cambelt off!


Have a look at one of the stickies here for a link to the Pelican or Clarkes site & there will be a manual link which will give you some idea of what is involved in changing the belts.
It depends on how confident you are with the spanners TBH. Whereabouts are you & we can advise on a local specialist if you don't feel confident doing it.
DON'T drive it, the harmonics may break the oil pickup pipe.

for what its worth, my integrales had balance belts... first thing i did on them was take them off...

whenever an engine was out, i'd remove the balance shafts too.

Done thousands of miles without balance belts, incl trackdays.

I know I can be picky, but is it possible to rescale the photos down? I know a picture can speak 1000 words but that's too much for me to handle .

The car should be ok to drive but I wouldn't drive it too far without the balance belts and get it to a garage, or you could attempt it yourself.

If you've changed a cambelt before you will be ok. When you get your next set of belts, go for Dayco belts (Contitech is also fine according to many) and INA tensioners (they can come in Febi Bilstein Packets and Ruville ones, but look if the tensioners themselves are INA). The cambelt uses an autotensioner, but many use the 90 degree twist technique to check it is tensioned ok, and the balance belt requires feeler gauges. But you will need to realign the balance belt pulleys again.

Saying that, JMG is near you and he is a very renowned Porsche specialist.

Sorry about the photos - my first attempt at posting pics on a forum. At least you can see all the detail.... (I've edited it now)

JMG is a long way from Plymouth, I'm afraid. I'm ok with spanners, but I've never changed a cambelt before. I'd still need to get it checked by someone, wouldn't I? If anyone knows of anyone who is local to Plymouth or Cornwall that can do this I'd be grateful of their details.

The cambelt looks OKish. It doesn't look in its first flush of youth, but there are no significant splits or cracks in it. The back of it where it goes over the cam pulley is not cracked, though there are some very fine 'wrinkles'. I'm paranoid about it now!

Darren

And it seemed to be going so well
Sorry to hear about your troubles. Give Andy Moss a ring, I am sure he can advise.

I had exactly the same thing happen to me. Good job I decided to check the belts soon after purchasing as you did.

Ron surf. The belts are changed together. If the balance belts are goosed then so is the cambelt. Don't drive it! As Jim says. You need both belts & maybe rollers. Also check your serivice record as that shouldn't have happened. Maybe it wasn't serviced when it says it was! Before doing any belts you must check the engine for oil leaks as on almost every seal the belts have to come off & that means another new belt. On the '44 they are not cheap. The good news is nothing broke. If it was mine the engine would have gone bang.

You can run a 944 without balance belts. Linsey racing sell a delete kit for the race boys (more power from less rotating mass.) If the bearings are tired in the balance shafts it makes sence. They work at low engine speeds to make it sweet. Well worth having them on a road car. It only causes damage if the balance belt is fitted incorrectly (Shafts out of phase.) That introduces a vibration that can cause damage. My concern is the state of the cambelt & rollers. But you need to know what your doing to change them youself as the tension has to be bang on. Too tight it kills the water pump. Too slack it can come off or jump a tooth. Don't forget to check the new ones after 1000 miles as they stretch. I give the job to my mechanic friend. If he gets it wrong I get a new engine out of him! Safer.

Thanks for all your responses. Jim, I've no intention of driving it. I'm not even looking forward to starting it up to move it out the garage.

I've decided to get Andy Moss in Honiton to replace the belts, as recommended by MisterGT. Seems a very helpful bloke. I could probably do it, but I want to drive it with some confidence! Didn't realise the rollers were so expensive!!

Next mission is to get it to Honiton, about 60 miles away. My plan is to get the RAC to do it, fingers crossed, broken belt in hand and pitiful expression on face....

Still looking for a replacement temperature/fuel gauge. I've restitched the steering wheel, and the tyres can wait til next month...

It is worth it, isn't it....?

I know of someone who apparently can transport a car for £55 over the distance you want! I'll get you the details if you want.

Hi Chas,

Is he local? Most people charge £55 just to get here. I'd be grateful if you could PM his details - just in case the RAC get sniffy about it...

Cheers!

Here is the info from a generally reliable source from another forum I frequent on:

I have used shiply too. Very impressed!