Nearly a month ago during some v.heavy rain, I went through a foot of water in the road at 120kph and over the next few days the alternator must have washed the bearings of lubricant and it was sounding like sand in it... took the radiator off and belts off 1 at a time until the culprit found. I removed the alternator and took it in for a recondition, new bearings and brushes, cost 65 bucks - good value. At 98000 klm decided that as I had so much removed already and time on my hands waiting for the alternator to be done I looked hard at the net sites of instructions.. never would normally attempt such a deal but after reading it was a challenge I could not resist to take on. First was 'find the bits'... first went to search of forums and discovered that in the USA the parts are much cheaper, and given the good exchange rate at 75c and chances of avoiding taxes. Courtesy Nissan and concept Z performance such places were best. Having bought from Simon at TTZ before and he has a really good web site, I looked there but compared to the price from the US I was going to save some serious dollars, and lets face it they're all serious, importing. Quotes were sought and the concept Z performance came in the best. I researched the benefits of the Under drive lower pulley and it was clear there were great performance gains to be made, mine is an Auto and when the air con is on too it can get a wee bit sluggish. Pricing them in to the equation, the price was US$685 + shipping ($80) Deliberating over which way to go, like what happens if my international parcel goes missing ? Its happened to me before. I again checked TTZ site out and in the kits Simon has this kit with u/d pulley for $1080 bucks (aust). So I called Simon and yes it was not a misprint, he decided to import some kits himself instead of losing the business...I was one of the fist to buy so consequently I had to wait a couple of weeks for shipping, but good news for all they are now a stock item at TTZ. After having the car up on jack stands for a few days I noticed an oil leak ARRGGHH coming from the space between the auto and the motor... off to the forum for some suggestions... rear main crank seal came the echoing answers. Also some good advice to change the heater hoses whilst the box is off. I made another shopping list, spark plugs (iridium of course) rear engine seal, heater hoses pair, a pair of hood stops, one of those nifty z key blanks, a twin turbo sticker that looks like the original, ooopps just spent 450 bucks...... oh well it must be love... I also ordered a set of 'Z' embroidered mats from Simon, he is getting them made locally and will spec. for around $75. good value. Finally the TNT truck arrived with me bits (3days shipping outa melbourne sent on a weds arrives on a monday, 5 days later arrrrggghh), I had already stripped it all down, a good tip here, I had two thin boxes that my new slotted brake rotors came in, on the lid I drew a rough of the part eg; cam belt cover lhs, poked holes in roughly to match the locations on the motor with a screwdriver and put each bolt through the respective hole. works really well as there are many different depths to some collection of bolts to worry about. In the box went all the nuts and washers, one box for the lhs one for the rhs of the motor, and I didn't miss one washer. Following all the steps closely, I removed the existing cam seals with care not to scratch either mating surfaces (result a rebuild)and replaced them, then to the crank pulley, 7 days of daily spraying with wd40 to ensure a smooth extraction... lever lever, grunt grunt...nada, nothing, zero.. again to our wonderful site for an answer, apparently less than 1% stick, mine was in that 1%. Out with the angle grinder and a metal cutting wheel, I am shaking at this point, but persevere with the info gained, and ground the metal above the keyway, this took a long time and lots of care not to cut the oil pump housing...a good king hit with a blunt chisel and crack, off it slid, fully rusted inside, had to sand the crank back to get the new one on. Simon at TTZ had one in stock fortunately, and was here the next day. Oooh another tip for you all to keep you interested, when removing the alternator, I banged it slightly into the a/c radiator nearly holing it, v. expensive to fix. So to avoid further possible damage I cut a thin piece of mdf to shape and slid it in behind the air pipes to the intercooler covering the radiator. Banged the board many times during the work so it was a good move. (nearly forgot to remove it before re-fitting the radiator lol...) The sprocket removed, seal replaced, bless the person who came up with the idea for using thin plastic sheet rolled up over the cranksaft, smeared with oil, then slide the seal up and in, then simply pull the plastic sheet away and its done, there is an badly designed step to get over on the crank and this saves much grief apparently. After finding that its actually the marks on the belt itself that matter with lining it all up all roughly at TDC it is actually easy for one person with a few attempts to get it right.Everything lined up, triple checked and a few turns ofthe crank and back to check the tensioner was 4-5 mm. On the way, I found the RHS sprockets on the cams were at rest on TDC but the lhs ones were wanting to spring quite violently about 45 deg. but would briefly hang at TDC. Whilst hanging on to the exhaust sprocket to line it up with the marker, the intake sprocket (cam) decided it would rotate, slicing a 2 cm gash in the knuckle of my right hand... arrrrggghh, good job I don't have neighbours lol. The only injury on the job, which is pretty good for me, I usually fist the motor a few times with bolts letting go at full grunt... The rest was easy, putting it all back together, took my time and cleaned everything along the way, wire brush on the angle grinder brought up the alternator, dwell angle sensor (being real careful not to lose the timing setting scratch on the body of the sensor), water pipes to a nice shine. At 8.30 pm finally convinced I had double checked everything, I connected the battery and turned the key...ykityyakityyakityykityyakityyakity...nada, not a sausage. The garage door slammed shut and again good not to have neighbours lol and back to the site for info. Found good stuff on diagnostics, and next day got to the computer under the passengers feet and followed the instructions, one long flash, one short flash... 11 ... back to the laptop, 11 is dwell angle sensor circuit. With only one air pipe to remove to get at it (remember to plug the hole as a stray washer or anything can f....k a turbo in seconds) and found the plug was back to front, amazed it fitted, so cleaned it all and put it back together, turned the key and vroom !! Sweetest sound !! All good, belts needed an extra tighten after a day or 2 because they started squealing, and tada! I feel real proud to have done it and with such success. The pulley change is really noticable and it really flies now, every day !! lol Wake up, I'm finished. Anyone considering doig this at home contact me if you need to.
Its a good Feeling and provides plenty of satisfaction when you can do the job youself, not to mention the labour costs saved, well done.:YD
im just about to start mine... but am a lil worried. im a technician however but not on cars. have not got a clue. but i believe i have everything ready to go. any tips though would be great.cheers Cory
Your'e never too old to learn, you'll survive. Fortune always favours the brave as it did Red Dwarf. Great write-up Red I shall benefit from you taking the time to record your adventure!LOLregards Luig
Excelent writeup Bryn....>>` I love the way you used research to get all the information, the right parts at the best prices and din't loose your sense of humour while doing the work. A few nice ideas in there, like the MDF protecting the AC condensor.
Forgot to mention.......>> I'll have the prototype of the floor mats from TTZ with me at Gilgandra if anyone wants to inspect the quality up close and in person.
Yep I agree you learn so much when doing a big job yourself, you can be the alpha male at the next tech day Can you elaborate on this whole thin plastic and cam seal procedure, I didn't quite understand it.Ben
Have to agree with the guys..... Great write up Bryn:YD Have my TT parked in the shed ready for exactly the same treatment.Great inspiration for a job I`m not looking forward to. May take you up on your offer of advice if I get stuck.=)
Wow thanks guys, what a friendly bunch... Good luck to all of you starting out to do the same, it really is easier than one would think, a good set of sockets, a good long torque wrench.... (book says torque to 60 pounds.... hello 60 pounds)lol ....another good tip, using the old timing belt to wrap around the intake cam sprockets to remove the bolts and tighten them up again after, and I used the old fanbelt to use the wrap technique to hold the crank firm whilst undoing and doing up the bolt holding the pulley, this saved removing the starter motor etc. for details http://www.ttzd.com/tech/timingbelttech.html and go to item 28. The a/c belt tensioner pulley , remove the actual pulley first and ust the adjusting bolt etc, is best for holding the crank pulley to get it on & off.
