This guy changed his forward cam shaft seals by taking off the cam sprocket only.

Volvo 850 Front Cam Seals - Volvospeed Forums

What's next, change the wheel bearing without taking the wheel off?

 

thats funny dude. thats possible if he could do that.LOL. ask him how he did it and might be of great help.LOLL

 

Looks like he pulled the cover, locked the belt somewhere, and just unbolted the cam sprocket. NUTS!!!

 

Pulled the cover, put a clamp on the tensioner...probably squeezed it some. then went to work. I love it, great idea.

 

That's how I did mine...I wouldn't have done it any other way. The sprockets don't keep time, the cams keep time. As long as your careful, the cams won't spin. People are under the assumption that once the time belt is removed, the cams spin freely and even the slightest nudge is going to set your car out of time and make it explode. It takes quite a bit of force to rotate the cams. I've never used a cam locking tool to change the belt either.

 

mark everything with white out when its all at TDC, don't have to ever worry about loosing time. this is the quickie repair, not the correct was of doing it, but works if you are in a pinch.

oh and the cams nudge them and they will spin left or right to the next flat and stop.

 

You don't even need to bother setting the cam timing to TDC before marking them. The cams are in time already, no point in cranking it by hand to get it in TDC, it will still be in time.

 

True, but it makes sense to mark at TDC for future reference, if you ever have to remove the cams or otherwise do get the timing off.

 

Are you saying that you do NOT align the timing marks when you replace a belt?

 

I think he's only talking about this type of repair in not needing to mark it or bring it to TDC. It surely would be possible to do it that way.

I think simply due to the damage possible if something shifted I'd still bring it up on TDC and make sure the crank and cams were on their marks. It isn't that much effort to get it there before you do this. It's just so much safer and although it shouldn't move that way you can check the marks and feel safe hitting the key. Just my two cents.

 

Marking the cams and crank timing marks with white automotive touch up paint is always a good idea as it makes double checking your work easier.

 

Just did mine 2 weeks ago, marked the position of the sprokets on the cams... popped them off, tapped in the new seals, sprockets back on, new belt and done. out and in in 1 1/2 hrs.

as always if you feel the cams moved, set the timing and youll be fine.

 

I did my timing belt last year but I didn't take a good look at the cam gears. Are the stock gears adjustable at all or do they only go back exactly as they came off ??

 

The gears bolt straight to the cams with 3 bolts. If you're just doing a timing belt, it's pretty screw-up proof as long as you mark everything (or more likely, it is already marked from the last time :P ).

If somehow it all got rotated, there is a notch which should be horizontal at TDC, and the cams are marked to indicate which way is "up" at TDC. (I forget what exactly the mark is, but it was all in the Haynes manual when I did my headgasket)

 

Stock gears are adjustable.. But you need a tool to adjust them correctly

 

Not always. You don't need to.

 

LOL, you guys are nuts. I have learned a great lesson.

 

The only time I have aligned the timing marks was when we were having a MWC meet and we wanted to check/re-do the timing on my block from when I installed the NA cams. We wanted to compare the timing marks on the cam sprockets/crank to the slots on the end of the cams behind the cps and rotor. It turns out that my timing was way off from when I installed the NA cams, and that was my fault for using the wrong timing mark on the crank.

 

This is nuts as well...