I have heard of this trick being done before, My only concern is that the belt's that you are cutting in half have been in use and have been stretched so technically the new belt that you are slipping on will be over tensioned and personally I dont think you would be able to stretch new belts onto the pulleys while they are still under tension my 996 ones are bad enough with tension fully let off,or am I missing part of the trick?
now that I have had a wee think about it the belts arent under tension the belts are holding everything in place and the new belts would have to be tensioned as normal that is if you could get the verticle belt passed the horizontal belt if you were doing a 996, its been a long night lol
You'd need strong hands to 'stretch' the new belt enough to fit on the pulley adjusted for a tensioned belt - the only merit I can see in this approach would be to get the vertical belt on without the intake cam spinning, but you would need to loosen the belts off a fair bit, especially to get over the tensioner pulley 'lips'. But since there are dots showing the correct position (and if there aren't then you should add them), it's not worth the messing about IMO.
this is very true,I think I will be doing mine as normal by the use of the timing dots after all it is why they are there in the first place and lets face it a belt change isnt that bad to do anyway,Ther are many ways in which to do a job ther are often shortcuts that can be made but shortcuts do tend to have a high risk of bringing a tear to ones eye and in this case maybe several :frown:
Ha, i caught my thumb between my chain and wheel cog a few weeks ago whilst cleaning a chain. The only reason why i still have a thumb,(lost the nail though blood bruising) the engine WASNT running.
I have watched (in admirable disbelief ) my dad change car timing belts using this technique, he slices the cam belt in half lengthways with a stanley knife while the engine is running, then stops the engine and slides on the new belt. Cut off the old one and tension it all up and cambelt swapped in 5 minutes! Not for me though.
