| Timing belt replacement is rumored to be a pain in the butt, and priced accordingly at the dealership service department. I learned a few things in my solo effort to replace my own timing belt: Special service tools (SSTs) are our friends, the factory manuals lie, apparently to inflate the billable hours for the dealerships, and SSTs (no, not STDs) are our friends. Here is the timing belt with the top cover and all the coolant hoses and accessory belts removed. Yet to come off are the fan bracket and the crank pulley. |  |
The yellow Power Ranger and her diminutive pachyderm pal are spokes models for a couple of tools that are crucial for this job. The front tool is a big honkin' torque wrench needed to set the 185 ft/lbs of torque on the crank pulley bolt. The tool behind it is to grip the crank pulley assembly holding it stationary while the crank bolt is removed and re-installed. This isn't the Toyota recommended SST (but it is one I had access to!) It is a chain whip sort of affair that has a roller chain that wraps around the pulleys and attaches to hooks on the tool. When the handle is moved a cam action grips the Pulleys. The Power Ranger is holding a piece of high density plastic stock I cut down to fit in the pulley channel to keep the teeth of the chain whip from biting into the pulley. I also needed a puller to get the crank pulley assembly off. I borrowed a friends Snap-On set but later bought a similar set at Sears for ~$18. Harbor Freight has a servicable set for around $8. | |
| This little guy is a major time saver (Blue Point part number YA9730). It allows the tensioner to be compressed without removing the A/C bracket shown in the following picture. Slip the SST between the tensioner pulley and the water pump pulley then slowly compress the tensioner. Insert the holding pin to keep the tensioner compressed when the SST is removed. Once the SST is out from between the pulleys simply take off the top idler pulley (between the cam pulleys in the top picture above), remove the timing belt, install the new belt, being careful to keep all timing marks aligned, then reinstall the idler pulley. |  |
| Next pull the pin out of the tensioner and rotate the crank double checking that the timing marks remain in alignment. If they do, reinstall the covers, belts, and hoses. This is a good time to replace the accessory belts and radiator hoses and move the old one's into the trail spares box. The factory manual makes no mention of this SST and directs you to take off the A/C bracket and tensioner then compress the tensioner in a press. The SST instructions direct you to _remove_ the timing belt by removing the idler pulley but then direct you to install the new belt by removing the A/C bracket and the pre-compressed tensioner, a completely unnecessary and time consuming step. |  |
| I also used an SST to set the tension on the belts. Most people guesstimate belt tension but I feel better knowing. |  |