GreenEyedPuma
Member
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2011
- Messages
- 36
Hopefully, a little help to avoid all the problems with the power steering (PAS) pump pulley blocking one of the bolts holding the cambelt cover (if you have aircon!). Don't bother trying to loosen and pull the PAS pump out of it's way - CUT THE TAB WHICH THE OFFENDING BOLT HOLDS IN PLACE OFF THE EDGE OF THE CAMBELT COVER INSTEAD!!!!
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Simples.....
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Firstly, thanks to ScubaSteve for this excellent "How To" guide and all the photo's, which I successfully used to replace my noisy, leaky water pump back in 2021. This allowed me to do another year's (as per the previous 5 or 6 years, thinking possibly its last, as again just before its MOT time) Grand Tour of the North East, Edinburgh, Oban and The Lake District! Yes my Puma's last 902 miles of twisty turney, uppey downey driving on A Roads, B Roads & tracks all made possible by you, ScubaSteve! God bless you!
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I followed the guide and all the posts about getting the PAS pump and pulley out of the way to access the cambelt cover bolt that was blocked by it, but without success. I got all the other cambelt cover bolts out, but with the 13mm deep socket, but could only loosen the PAS pump mounting bolt at the bottom, inwards towards the engine bay. I just couldn't get at the other two of them. So, before I wasted hours finding some way to get them off, I decided to look at the cambelt cover again, as it had seemed very loose and wobbly.
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Surprise, surprise, I then discovered somebody had previously SAWN OFF the tab extending out of the side of the cover (not damaging the edge of the cover itself), in order to remove the cover without having to disturb the PAS pump at all! That meant with a bit of manoeuvring (had to resort to spell check - sigh!!!), I was able to remove the cover after all! It looked like whoever had sawn that offending bolt tab off, was either a Ford Dealer at the 100K Service and Cam Belt change, or local garage at 137K overheating, blown head gasket, warped head (and many hundreds of pounds later) repairs had done it, as I was the cars owner from new. They must have used a flexible "file saw". I could actually see the plastic tab cut off was still fixed in situ under its bolt, behind the PAS pump pulley.
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Anybody reading this might be hesitant to saw off the tab this inaccessible bolt holds, in case it stops the cambelt cover keeping out dirt, oil & contaminants from the cambelt and tensioner. However, I changed the water pump myself at 220K miles, so that was 83 and 120K miles after the other jobs mentioned above, done by "professionals" and the cam belt, tensioner and cam belt "sprockets" were nevertheless as clean as you could hope to find! The cover also had a triangular chunk snapped out of it (still bolted to the engine block under the alternator), plus a crack about 2/3 across from the left to right around when I removed it. When it had previously been bolted back in place, the breaks and cracks had been covered with black sealant, which surprisingly had kept the cambelt area nice and clean! SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT JUST ONE BOLT NOT HOLDING THE COVER, FROM ALLOWING DIRT, OIL & CONTAMINANT INGRESS!!! It didn't seem to have affected my car!
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I hope this helps, as those PAS mounting bolts are a quite a problem, possibly without all sorts of specialist breaker bars, flexible and multi-flexible socket joints, etc! Go on, saw it off, you know you want to.....
.
Simples.....
.
Firstly, thanks to ScubaSteve for this excellent "How To" guide and all the photo's, which I successfully used to replace my noisy, leaky water pump back in 2021. This allowed me to do another year's (as per the previous 5 or 6 years, thinking possibly its last, as again just before its MOT time) Grand Tour of the North East, Edinburgh, Oban and The Lake District! Yes my Puma's last 902 miles of twisty turney, uppey downey driving on A Roads, B Roads & tracks all made possible by you, ScubaSteve! God bless you!
.
I followed the guide and all the posts about getting the PAS pump and pulley out of the way to access the cambelt cover bolt that was blocked by it, but without success. I got all the other cambelt cover bolts out, but with the 13mm deep socket, but could only loosen the PAS pump mounting bolt at the bottom, inwards towards the engine bay. I just couldn't get at the other two of them. So, before I wasted hours finding some way to get them off, I decided to look at the cambelt cover again, as it had seemed very loose and wobbly.
.
Surprise, surprise, I then discovered somebody had previously SAWN OFF the tab extending out of the side of the cover (not damaging the edge of the cover itself), in order to remove the cover without having to disturb the PAS pump at all! That meant with a bit of manoeuvring (had to resort to spell check - sigh!!!), I was able to remove the cover after all! It looked like whoever had sawn that offending bolt tab off, was either a Ford Dealer at the 100K Service and Cam Belt change, or local garage at 137K overheating, blown head gasket, warped head (and many hundreds of pounds later) repairs had done it, as I was the cars owner from new. They must have used a flexible "file saw". I could actually see the plastic tab cut off was still fixed in situ under its bolt, behind the PAS pump pulley.
.
Anybody reading this might be hesitant to saw off the tab this inaccessible bolt holds, in case it stops the cambelt cover keeping out dirt, oil & contaminants from the cambelt and tensioner. However, I changed the water pump myself at 220K miles, so that was 83 and 120K miles after the other jobs mentioned above, done by "professionals" and the cam belt, tensioner and cam belt "sprockets" were nevertheless as clean as you could hope to find! The cover also had a triangular chunk snapped out of it (still bolted to the engine block under the alternator), plus a crack about 2/3 across from the left to right around when I removed it. When it had previously been bolted back in place, the breaks and cracks had been covered with black sealant, which surprisingly had kept the cambelt area nice and clean! SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT JUST ONE BOLT NOT HOLDING THE COVER, FROM ALLOWING DIRT, OIL & CONTAMINANT INGRESS!!! It didn't seem to have affected my car!
.
I hope this helps, as those PAS mounting bolts are a quite a problem, possibly without all sorts of specialist breaker bars, flexible and multi-flexible socket joints, etc! Go on, saw it off, you know you want to.....
