Replacing in situ like this might seem a good idea, but, a well designed cambelt system will have timing marks, and any sprocket that might need removing will have Woodruff keys so can only be fitted in one spot, arguably the well designed cambelt will also only drive the camshafts via a tensioner and idler, hence no locking kits or other faff designed to stop the DIY motorist from saving several £hundred would be required.
By definition then most are poor designs (as any mechanic unfortunate enough to have to change one without timing marks will tell you), there will be other things being driven by the belt, which even if you are doing things on the cheap, ie fitting a new belt and no kit, still need to be checked by feel close inspection and spinning by hand to judge the state of idler/tensioner bearings and water pump, ideally a full cambelt kit should be fitted.
Therefore, fitting a new belt as suggested is realistically a temporary measure only.
I've only done 1 belt replacement on one car. I had removed the head to fix sparkplug hole damage, so this shortcut, if such it be, wasnt avaiable.
Both shaft bolts were insanely tight, and there was no provision for locking the shafts for bolt removal or replacement, beyond the ludicrous suggestion in the manual to jam it with a screwdriver, and no torque wrench access to the cam sprocket bolt, both problems requiring improvisation, fairly desperate improvisation for the first one.
It was a Regal PITA.
I got it back together and going around by hand apparently ok without interference, but I had some unfortunate thought about improving the measurement of the tension applied by the tensioner (which it turned out I didn;t have clearance for anyway) and did it again, and the second time it wasnt quite right, the belt sort of building up slack at one point in the rotation. Hard to explain and I'.m not sure how it happened, (maybe the tension was off) but it lwas somehow slightly out of phase and looked wrong, though still apparently without mechanical interference.
Next day, back at the car to take the belt off and try again the cops had towed it for overdue inspection, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (maybe)
EVERYTHING ""is realistically a temporary measure only", but if my objective had been simply to change the cam belt and this trick had been available, I'm pretty sure I would have seriously considered it if I'd been aware of it.
Edited by edlithgow on 02/08/2025 at 13:28
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