Wahoo, did my first timing belt job!

[94L_wagon]

Great info from the board on the job, which as a result went pretty* smoothly! All in all very happy to have all new belts, seals and water pump/hoses/thermostat done for about $200 and some quality wrenching time!

Some comments others might find useful:
-Pulled the radiator, it took <10 minutes definately recommended.
-Removed crank bolt with the starter 'bump' method. Could not loosen it with the brakes/5th gear/breaker bar.
-Go very easy on the timing belt cover bolts that fasten the two cover halves together - two of mine broke. The ones that go into the block are more robust.
-I used an all rubber strap wrench to hold the cam pulleys still while I loosened/tightened the cam bolts. Was a bit worried about this holding but it worked fine.
-Seals were less of a problem than I thought using a seal puller. The crank seal was leaking.
-Digging the water pump out from behind all the brackets and stuff took longer than I expected.
-I did the little 90deg 'bypass' hose on the water pump, well worth buying while you have it all apart. Mine was quite swollen.
-To my relief the oil pump seems OK, and all the idlers were smooth, with relatively little play. Will do them next time.
-Compressed the tensioner in a big vice - so I can return the unused one to Subaru .
-Made sure I counted teeth as well as lining things up- with the tensioner on the cam marks were not 'exact' with the new belt. The markings on the OEM belt are very nice to have.

*When I removed the tensioner idler pully the bushing fell into the coolant drain pan. I found it after I had put everything back together and just topped off the radiator! Good news is it only took 4 hours this time to strip everything down and put it back together, and I noticed the missing bushing before I cranked her up!

All in all quite easy I thought, if time consuming. I would do it again before a drive-axle!

[THAWA]

what! I'd do an axle before a timing belt. Too time consuming for me, plus way less space to move around. But anyway, glad to see you made it out okay Also the starter method worked for me but then i learnerd about the access port for the torque convertor. I feel your pain on the timing belt covers, I had to buy all new ones after i was done with my belt, and I broke one of the things it screws into on the oil pump.

just to swing this off topic (it's going to happen eventually ) Can you tell me some info about your miata? I'm intrigued by those cars now.

[94L_wagon]

I guess I just don't like hitting stuff with a hammer - it freaks me out that I might break something! Also that CV boot grease is nasty stuff...

I'd rather take more time than have to tackle the awkward stuff .

The Miata is 100% fun - great handling, relatively little power, but a very peaky engine that just begs to be bounced off the rev limiter. Its totally impractical in almost every way, but pretty reliable so its my daily driver (Cheaper to insure than the Subaru).

In contrast the Subie is totally practical, and primarily I bought it to do the ski runs, which are a big no-no in the Miata! I was surprised how well the Subie corners (especially under throttle), but in contrast its a fairly big car, albeit with lots of low end grunt, but a bit less willing to rev. The Subaru also lives in the street without fear of its top getting slashed, and is really useful for hauling stuff around!

The Subie is easier to work on because of the space under the hood. It took me 3 hours and blood letting to change the Miata radiator this weekend. 30 minute job in the Subaru.

[THAWA]

hehe, ah well

Yeah I hear miata's are a pain to do stuff on. I take it you'd recommend one of those as a play car then?

[94L_wagon]

If you are looking for a fun cheap sports car thats got similar reliability to the Subie I would say go for it. There are common issues like clutch slaves and plug wires, but very little major. The early models go pretty cheap, especially in fall/winter, and mileage is rarely a problem if they've been maintained.

They are just so much fun to drive, and very easy to control on the limit. As long as you don't care about the gay car/hairdresser car/chick car stereotypes (I could not care less - I'll drive what I want) I can't really think of a disadvantage. In fact the best way to solve that problem is to take them for a drive and scare them ****less, or if you trust them give them the keys and let them experience the handling.

Theres more info than you want to know on www.miataforum.com.

[THAWA]

yeah i've been lurking that forum for a minute, and been perusing the garage and faq links aswell. I'm prtetty much set on buying one, its only a matter of time
good to see such good reviews of it

[legacy92ej22t]

Feels real good to do your own work, don't it?

Oh, and I'd probably rather do a timing belt job over an axle too. When I did my front axles the car was off the road for almost 2 weeks because of the nightmare with the driverside. The passengerside was super easy though. If they both went that way, it would have been better then a timing belt replacement...