loyalewithcheese

okay, i'm going to chime in again since i have removed and replaced my belts three times this weekend trying to get my water pump and timing belts on. i think i have found the -best- method for putting them on, and i thought i'd share. as i said in my previous post the first time i put these belts on i too thought the inner one was too small and spent probably 30 mins prying it on with a lot of cursing and brute force. now i've got my method down. fyi, this in an a loyale, with inboard A/C and PS. on my setup i had the alt unbolted and out of the way already, and i have to say it made it easier for getting the inner belt on. one time i had bolted it in place before doing the belts, and it was harder. having the alt removed made it much easier to pry a 12" flathead on the idler pulley when tightening it, and it also makes hand/tool access to the idler bolt/nut a little bit easier. if i were to do just the belts, i'd take the 2 mins and unbolt the alt to make it easier. so, here's my trick...on the idler pully, push it all the way up and tighten the adjusting nut snuggly, but not really hard. then take out the pivot bolt completely. with the pivot screw removed you can then push the pulley up even further on the pivot side, thus using the adjusting nut/bolt as another pivot. with it in this higher up postion, tighten down the adjuster a bit more to keep it all in place. then put the belt on, starting on the PS and crank side, do all the pulleys except the idler. you'll find this isn't too hard to do. i was able to do it about 95% of the way with just my hands and the last bit was getting the belt from the outer to the inner groove on the AC pulley, which was easy to do with a 12" flathead. once that's all on, use the flathead to push the belt onto the idler. since the idler is the smallest pulley it makes it the easiest to get around. all you need is a mild push of the 12" flathead, just wear gloves in case it slips. after that, put the pivot bolt back, tighten it up and then do the outer belt...which is easy cheers andrew ps. when tigheting the idler pivots and such, try doing it from the drivers side instead of standing in front. it gives you much easier hand access.

that's what i thought until i found out i'm aparently retarded. i drove to 5 diff parts stores before finding an O ring that fit, get home and was moving the water pump's box the off the bench when the instructions fell out....along with a gasket and O ring! sonofa..... then, after all that, i get it on, and it still leaked! so, i pulled it ALL apart again, and this time i drilled out the metal hose bracket some more so it would seat all the way down. now it seems to be holding water. i had to drill out like 3/4 inches more of hole in the bracket so it would move over enough to seat in the pump. piece of crap pump. oh well, at least now i can get to the timing belts in record time. thanks for all your help (especially the ebay link! that was $140 cheaper than a local parts store). i've been too cheap to buy a workshop manual for this car, but with usmb i don't really need one. i friggin love forums! man, i'm old enough to remember wrenching before the interweb got all popular....them were dark days, lots of headscraching, guessing, and really really bad desicions.

okay, so i did the timing belts today, did an oil seal, i was going to skip the water pump since i was planning on selling soon, but i found some leaked coolant around the pump, and the car hasn't been holding coolant anyway so i decided to get one, thinking maybe the pump was were the leak was. so i found one at kragen. got it on, but one thing wasn't quite right. the metal hose that goes in the side just didn't seem that tight. and the hole was like deeper so the pipe had to go more towards the pump and i even drilled out the hole on it's bracket so i could slide it over more. once that was on it felt fairly tight, but still i didn't trust it. so i get everything back together. she fired up on the first go but after a short while i noticed a fairly steady, drip...drip...drip...drip...drip of coolant on the front of the engine right near the pump. ugh. so should i find a new O ring for that pipe? i can't see crap in there so i don't even know if that's the source. the pump came with no gasket so i scraped the old one and used blue permatex, but i don't know. any advice? i really hope it's the O ring, i so do not want to pull all that crap apart again.

yeah, the rear one is a nightmare, i just did mine a few weeks ago. i think i ended up walking it up with two fatty flathead screwdrivers, like putting a tire on. once it was on, it was fairly loose with the the tensioner loose, so even though at one point it seemed impossible, in the end it was fine. good luck!

yeah there was a rash of cat thefts at my work as well, broad daylight. i work at a large tech company with serveral multi building complexes complete with "security" guards. didn't stop these fools. thankfully i work from home or ride a moto to the office

cool, thanks, i'll check that as well.

ahh.. too late. the car was like 25 miles from home, and given the belt screeching i was having even after i replaced the two a/c & altenator belts, i'm pretty sure it's the belts and tensioners. even the accessory belts were totally trashed, so i'm sure it's been as long since the car has seen new timing belts. i'll at least check before i start pullin' the radiator off. if it's not i'll keep them around for when they do go

hey GD, thanks for the link! i called a flap and found that kit, but they wanted $200. it would have been nice to do it this weekend, but i'm not in that much of a hurry.

after further searching i was thinking that as well. f***. is this something you really need to pull the motor for? thx droo

okay so our loyale crapped out today. the wife was driving it and she said it suddenly lost power, like someone just turned off the key. it made no strange noises, and did not putter out like it had no gas (tank is at 1/2). i met her about 5 mins afterwards, but we were in a rush to get somewhere. at that point all i knew was that the power windows and belts were working well, so the battery had some juice. a few hours later we return to investigate. this is what i know so far... cranks over fine, battery and starter sound healthy. so i think the alternator is okay. all fuses check out, i even swapped the 15amp for the coil with another to check that out i pulled the coil wire at the dizzy to see if i could see a spark while the wife cranked it over. i got nothing. i looked around all wires look connected and okay dizzy cap, plugs and wires are about one year old - externally they looked okay, i didn't have screwdriver to open up the dizzy. oil and coolant levels are good i just replaced the clutch a few weeks ago, so i thought maybe there is wire i messed with that has disconnected itself, but everything at the starter looks fine and all other plugs look intact. so at this point, my best guess is coil. any other opinions or guesses? i read the other coil thread going about the capictor issues. i'm assuming this is the little dodad that below the coil that one of the small wires goes to? if i drop in a new coil should i bypass that, if so anyone know which wires get moved/spliced for that to work? thanks!

ahhhhh yes, as i suspected. thanks!

my loyale's AC is barely pushing out cool air these days. i've seen cans of refrigerant at kragen, and i was wondering if anyone has used these? which one should i get? will it help? how do you use them? i'm not looking for a full fix, or long term fix. the car only needs to last me a few more months, so it's not worth the investment to do it right, but it would be nice on hot days since my 3yo hates open windows.

cool, just checking, some CA people have a really twisted idea about how rusty things are

btw, one car had an alloy on it, but i don't think it had all four.

you must be born in CA. even the worst pacifica raised car i've seen pails in comparison to cars in the midwest or northeast. in places like st. louis/chicago you don't see any 70's/80's daily drivers they are all long gone to the crusher in the sky. CA cars are insane. my 94 loyale, 87 vw vanagon, and 92 f350 are virtually rust free. the 81 vanagon i owned 15 years ago in st. louis when i was 16yo was already completely rusted through in some parts. every time i climb under my CA cars i shake my head in amazement. and, to those in the rust belt, i know there are 70/80's daily drivers out there, even clean ones. but it's not like here. when i moved here i saw more pre 79 vw busses in one week then i did in my entire 6 year stay in chicago -- that is not an exageration. that said, all the cars i saw at haward were pretty clean. i'm sure some had some surface rust here or there. my rust scale is based on my rust belt upbringing, where if there isn't holes in the floor for dropping smoke bombs through, then it's a solid car.

guys guys, they're having another sale on the 31st they do go through them quick, but i bet a few will still be there.

hey all, for those who live in the CA bay area, the pick-your-part in hayward has like 6-7 decent subies. i think like 2-3 were dual range cars. had one loyale in pretty good shape and a maroon GL with a pretty clean grey interior. i think i'm going back in two weeks, if anyone is looking for something smallish and easy to pull let me know. it will be there 50% off weekend so stuff will be cheap. there are like 4-5 yards near that one, but they all had nothing. the yard next door said they had an early 80's one, but i didn't see it.

yeah, i know it would probalby be easier, but i don't have a hoist, and i just want to replace the clutch. i only need the car to drive for a few more months then i'm driving it straight to the yard. so i'm not intersted in fixing the various leaks and i can't stand dealing with coolant right now i've got the two seperated and the old clutch out. i put the new TO bearing on but the spring clips just don't feel that tight. is that normal? i noticed the TO is not concentric, and currently have it arranged so that the inner circle is higher up. is that correct? i don't have a manual so i have clue. thx!

i'm trying to drop the trans to replace my clutch. but i'm not sure how to remove the cv's? my vw has allen bolts to remove, but the only thing on the loyale is the weird cog ring with the little lock, but i'm not sure that's what i want to remove??? any ideas? can i get away with leaving them connected? thx andrew

ah, that makes sense. the relay diagram looked like it had a resistor, so i thought that was controller. i'll pull it apart and see if i can rebuild it, or get my lazy rump roast out to a pick and pull. thx andrew

okay, the fan is working, the switch is cleaned and working, fan only comes on at level 4, so i'm assuming the relay is dead. sound right? anyone have a relay they wanna sell? the pick in pull is to far from my house and my weekend time is precious. cheers andrew

i'll try that thanks. hopefully it will be easy, i'm not looking forward to spending a weekend day at the junkyard, and my wife is going to kill me if i don't get this heater back up! thanks all!

so, 94 loyale, fan stops blowing, fuses under dash all check out ok. am i missing some fuses elsewhere? any idears? thanks!

usmb says toyo! thanks for the recommendation, anything is better than the baldies i've been driving around on!

hey all, any recommendations for good tires for the wee loyale? i'm not in a position to find some 14"s right now, so what's good with the stock 13"s? sure the loyale is no STi, but i live in the twisties and i drive like a boob, even in the wet (and rainy season is coming). so i just want something that performs better than the Pep Boys cheapo specials. cheers andrew