so it seems that when i did my engine swap about 3 years ago i just replaced the obvious parts, timing belt, water pump, thermostat, all drive belts, some vacuum hoses, front crank seal, camshaft seals, and some gaskets. but, i did not bother to replace the timing belt tensioner and spring. so car drove fine up until last week when i was leaving work i started the car and the first 5 seconds it sounded fine. after that the engine made a crazy noise as if something got tangled in the accessory belts. i was like "OH ****!!!" i shut it off and then waited like 10 seconds. started her up again and the same **** again. so i called my dad and just towed the car home with the his SUV. so i waited for the weekend when i had time to take the motor apart and long and behold the timing belt had no tension what so ever. luckily i did not bend valves and thankfully i caught it on time before any internal damage might have occured. so today i went to Nissan and ordered all the timing parts again and this time the tensioner with the spring. im replacing the all the seals again along with a new water pump and thermostat. don't want to take anymore chances for another couple thousand miles or until i do my next engine swap.

 

wow.. so was the locknut still tight or did it come loose? you might want to put a new tensioner stud and spring stud in, just for some added peace of mind.

exactly how did you tension the belt when you installed it last time? as matt was ing me about last week, the spring tension alone is not the proper amount of tension. so theoretically you can set the tension without even having a spring at all, because you set it with a handheld scale. I just picked up a little pull scale from harbor freight so i can be sure to set it right this time.

 

I used my fish weighing scale!

 

buddy u jus saved alot of things in ur engine being destroyed..gud u didnt crank it again....

 

that's what i bought

weighs 'fish' [and timing belts] up to 45lbs!

all i wanted was an analog one... but all they had was a digital one that cost $20 and no batteries included either! i was kinda mad but whatever... it'll do the job.

 

well, yeah it was loose and the spring was already messed up. i already have a new spring and tensioner along with a new timing belt, crank seal and cam seals. now i need to get a new lock nut and washers along with a new water pump and thermostat. all parts are being bought from the Dealer so im not gonna take any chances this time. i was gonna ask about the tension on the belt so i guess you guys already answered my question. i will look for a scale to do this. my autodata timing belt book says 0.50-0.60 ins./22 lbs. between both cams and 22 lbs between the tensioner and the cam. as for the tensioner once installed it says to run a feeler gauge of 0.014 x 0.5 ins. looks like this weekend is going to be fun for me. i will be working on both my 3rd gen and a newly acquired 4th gen in my backyard this weekend. i am going to have a lot of fun.

 

where did you get this scale from?

 

I got it from Harbor Freight. If you're lucky they'll have a cheaper, analog pull scale. so you won't have to buy a battery and pay $20 for something you might use 2 or 3 times ever.

 

timing belts FTL!!says the man who has to do one soon

 

on your pathy? is that a 3.0 or 3.3? i dunno when they changed it...

 

the pathfinder switched to the 3.3 in 96 along with going unibody.
87-95 were a VG30 with a real frame.

 

thanks, i will go to Harbor Freight during this week and see if i can find one.