timing belt replacement, now whine

I had recently replaced my timing belt, pulleys, and water pump a couple days ago on my 96 zetec. I had a horrid screeching noise because one of the belt guide bearings were shot and my timing belt was very loose. Well I replaced it all, wasnt as bad as I expected except for putting the lower radiator hose back on the water pump with a/c bracket still on.

I start the car up and notice a misfire. I had also replaced the plug wires since the old ones broke, thats when I found my cousin crossed plug wires (old ones) which I did notice before and wanted to test to see if routing them the same way would run right or misfire. For some reason it ran fine with 2/3 crossed, and after I did the timing belt and fixed the mix up it ran fine. Now anyways, I got on the road and noticed a whine. The car sounded like it had a roots blower on it. I get back home and notice coolant all over the place, and noticed the whine was coming from the timing belt. Coolant leak was my fault for not clamping the hose that goes to the overflow down, and it got into the belt and chewed a hole in it (fixed with clamps and a brass slug).

Now the whine I cant quite get. Belt doesnt seem to be getting chewed up or anything. What is up with the supercharger whine after a new timing belt? Could it be too much tension? When I was tightening it, it was either too loose, or very nice and tight.

One last thing, how the hell do you get the crank pulley torqued down? I have like 50-60 lbs on it and cant get it to the 89 without moving the entire car or having to remove the entire front end to get rotation out of the torque wrench.

Some cam belt whine is generated if the belt is too tight. You may also have a bad pulley bearing, but since they are new my vote is on the belt tension. Double check that you have tensioned it correctly.

Well since I finally got another day off, Im going to go out and tear it apart again HOORAY!!!! See if I can knock some tension of the belt.

I couldnt find this anywhere, but do you know how much deflection the belt should have between the cam gears and/or deflection between exhaust cam gear to belt guide pulley?

another question......... I saw that there needs to be a spring for the belt tensioner now, do I really need to add that? Is that something that just helps set tension instead of trying to set it yourself? I didnt have one in there to begin with, and didnt get one.

saturnspeed_12 said:

Well since I finally got another day off, Im going to go out and tear it apart again HOORAY!!!! See if I can knock some tension of the belt.

I couldnt find this anywhere, but do you know how much deflection the belt should have between the cam gears and/or deflection between exhaust cam gear to belt guide pulley?

another question......... I saw that there needs to be a spring for the belt tensioner now, do I really need to add that? Is that something that just helps set tension instead of trying to set it yourself? I didnt have one in there to begin with, and didnt get one.

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I hope you replaced all the associated parts. I have read where if they are not all replaced there are problems waiting just a few miles down the road.

the only things i did not replace were the cam and crank gears.

i did go back and replace the belt again, since I had a spare belt. I loosend the tension and had what I thought was good deflection. I drive it around a bit, and no whine. But the second time I drive it further and warm it up, the whine comes back. Not nearly as bad as before, but it wont go away. Maybe I notice it more since I dont have the cover over the belt, thats all I can think of since the tension can not loosen any more or there will be too much deflection.

Sounds like you did the right steps. My book says tensioner spring (6L277) and retaining bolt (W700001-S309) must be purchased and properly installed on the engine. The tensioner spring will adjust the timimg belts tension and should not require further adjustment.

On the ford cd it says the tensioner spring is only installed when this belt is serviced not at the factory.
It also says to check the tensioner and timing belt idler pully for smooth rotation, binding, and abnormal noise.

You did align the cam shafts right. They show a special tool for that. If you did all the steps and tightened the bolts to spec then you should be good to go. When you get the cover on then the belt noise might just sound normal again. The only term for tension on the belt I see is smooth operation.

Thats my 2 cents from the books.

everything was torqued to specs, everything aligned properly (made my own cam holding tool with a 3/16" thick piece of steel). i set the crank a bit before tdc and when i tightend the tension it turned the crank right up to tdc and cams were still aligned.

the whine is very little now. it happens from like 1200-2200 rpms and is very light. it use to be from 2200-2800rpms and have a loud whine like a roots blower would make. i did not use the spring though, and im happy with the way it is right now. feels perfectly fine and hope to have no issues with it.

Well it sounds like you did it all correctly and perhaps it will get all back down to the dull roar it should be.