squeak. squeak. squeak. squeak. squeak.

["T. Reed" <treed2@u.washington.edu>]

Ugh. I'm going insane! My motor has been making a horribly annoying "eee!"
squeak about 2 times per second - "eee! eee! eee! eee! eee!" etc. for
quite some time. And I've always believed it was the crank pulley rubbing
on the lower timing belt (plastic) cover. After replacing the cover with
a brand new one, the squeak was still there and further inspection
revealed that even though the warping of the cover was fixed by its
replacement, the pulley was still rubbing. Finally in desperation a couple
of days ago I pulled all my belts and pulleys again and tried to fix it
once and for all. I took off the lower belt cover and used a dremel tool
to liberally clearance it so it would not be in contact with the pulley.
Well after putting it all back together the squeak was still there and I
realized by the amount of "rust dust" that the squeak was coming from the
crank timing belt -sprocket- rubbing against the block! So the sprocket
is actually cutting through my block - that's reassuring!

Anyway, I'm tired of this and I'm going to fix it. I have ordered a new
crank sprocket bolt and washer/spacer from the stealership as I understand
it is a stretch bolt and I'm going to make a very close inspection of
everything after I get the crank sprocket off to make sure it is seating
properly and completely, and is not anywhere near touching the block.

So I need some suggestions - how can I get this bolt off without the motor
just spinning around when I put a wrench on it? How can I get it back on?
Should I use air tools or a breaker bar with an cheater pipe?

Also I'm not sure that it was put back together properly in the first
place (since somehow it got installed crooked or unevenly and that's
what's causing my problem - or the stretch bolt was reused, could that
cause it?). Does the assembly order go "bolt-washer-sprocket-crank" or
"bolt-sprocket-washer-crank" ? I guess it has to be the former because it
wouldn't really work any other way (i think), but I just want to make
sure. It seems like the sprocket should be farther from the block, though.
Just from looking at the cam sprocket, that is.

After taking all my v-belts and pulleys off and dealing with two stripped
out bolt heads (one of the 4 crank pulley allen screws and the allen head
that holds the lower belt cover to the block), I decided to replace all
the allen screws on the pulleys with new ones. The new ones were roughly
the same length (+/- 2 threads in length) and I figured there would be no
problem. After putting a thin coat of anti-sieze on the threads, I
threaded them in to the water pump but after twisting very lightly
(one hand, wrist motion) with the ratchet they just kept spinning and
spinning and when I backed them out the threads came with them! (2 of the
3 bolts holding the pulleys on). So that pissed me off since I think I
will require a new water pump to fix the stripped out threads. In the mean
time I -lightly- tightened the third unaffected screw and put the old
allen screws back in the stripped holes and let them hold on to the last 2
or 3 threads remaining in the holes. Hopefully I won't get a pulley flying
up and smashing in to my hood by surprise. I guess I can get new bolts
that are 1 cm longer and put nuts on the opposite side of the
pulley-mounting-triangle thingie but that's half-ass. Safer than what I
have now, though, I guess..

I appreciate any suggestions or insight.

Thanks!

-Toby

--
'87 16v


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