I am the proud owner of a 95 J30 with 126000 miles. I have been able to verify through my local dealer that all of the reccomended services have been done except for the timing belt. I do have a shop manual but was wondering how hard replacing the timing belt ACTUALLY is. The dealer is quoting me $700. I would like to save the $$$ and do it myself, but would like some insight on what I am getting in to before I make the decision.
Thanks!
95 J30 timing Belt
not entirely hard. just time consuming. i just got a '93 J30 with 119k and did mine immediately. you have to make sure that all of your points are lined up EXACTLY!!! there are five (5) marks to line up. the one on the crankshaft, two on the intake cams and two on the exhaust cams while #1 piston is at TDC. taking the old one off is a breeze. its getting the new one on thats tricky. took me a few hours just to get it on then more hours to take it all apart and do it again because i was off by one tooth. before you take the old one off make sure you put a small bolt into the threaded hole in the tensioner. this will stop it from spreading out when there is no tension on it. then install the new one counter clockwise. you should use a white marker on your cam marks and a red marker on the tooth preceding that one. you will have to line up the red marks with the marks on the head because when you force the belt on (and you will have to) it will move the intake and exhaust cam on one side forward a tooth. I hope i just made sense because i learned the hard way by taking it apart twice. hardest timing belt job i ever did and i do them to all of my cars from my '90 BMW 525 to '89 mazda MPV and '93 ford escort!! if you are off one (1) tooth it will not run right. two (2) teeth you are screwed as this is an interference engine. piston and valve damage will be imminent.hope this helped....now im off to post my other problem....