944 balance shaft setup

[Lance924]

Hi all,
i am trying to set up the balance shafts on my 86 944.
I had to replace the bottom tensioner and install new belt so followed clarks garage instructions to the last detail.
When i started the car back up again it was worst than when the belt was not attached.
The only differance in the instructions from clarks garage i noticed is that he says when you allign the shafts with the grove on the rear cam cover.Top shaft grove should be about the 1 oclock and the bottom shaft about 7 oclock.When looking at the notch on my cam cover, top shaft the notch is at 12 oclock and the bottom shaft the raised aligment is at about 11 oclock position.
Can anybody help with this one please.

[Techno Duck]

There are two notches on the back edge of the sprockets. The notch for the top balance shaft should be pointing in the aprox. 1:00 position (there is a mark on the rear timing cover).

The bottom balance shaft should be pointing in aprox. the 7:00 position, there is also a extra piece of plastic on the lower cover for the line up.

This picture should be helpful..



Sounds like yours are a little out of phase. It helps to have a extra set of hands hold the top balance shaft sprocket on the alignment mark while you get the belt on and line up the bottom shaft.

[Lance924]

Thanks Techno Duck for the reply.
The Notch on the plastic cover for the top is not at 1 but about 12 oclock.
As for the bottom shaft the raised piece of plastic to lign up is about 11 oclock.
There is also only one notch on the rear of the sprocket .
Im Stuck here.

[Techno Duck]

Lance, sorry but i was incorrect. Its been a while since i did this. You are correct that the top notch should be at the 12:00 position. I didnt take into account that picture needs to be rotated counter clockwise slightly.

I believe you may not be looking at the correct mark for the lower balance shaft. These are the only two pictures of the lower mark ive got..





The lower notch on the sprocket should be pointing roughly in the 7:00 - 8:00 position.

The last picture is blurry, but the mark is directly to the right of the belt tension roller.

[Lance924]

Im just gonna take another look at the bottom shaft and will post back again in a few mins.
And thanks again

[Lance924]

Thanks Techno Duck,i have just looked again at the bottom shaft and indeed there is another mark as which to align to.It is thw same as the one which is also at about 11 oclock.As you said i have been using the wrong one which would put the lower shaft out bu about 45 degres.
At least i had the top one right. lol
Thats a job for tommorow i think as its 8:45 PM here.
But once again mate thanks for the help.
Cheers

[callmethewander]

can i jump in here and ask a ?? as i'm about to do this. is this all done with the crank pulley at TDC, and how do you determine that and the cam shaft(s)? thx

[Techno Duck]

Yes, the car must be set to TDC to do this. You can take the distributor cap off and line up the mark on the cam gear with the TDC mark on the rear cover. It should point in aprox. the 2:00 position.

[SoCal Driver]

Make darn sure the keys in the balance shafts are in the correct location (pointing up) and that you match to O and U locations shown on the diagram. The most common error is to put one sprocket on 180 out.

[speedracing944]

Use the mark on top of the flywheel as well. What I do is use the notch in the cam sprocket to get me close then fine tune the TDC position by using the mark on the flywheel.

Speedy

[ae1969]

Originally posted by SoCal Driver
Make darn sure the keys in the balance shafts are in the correct location (pointing up) and that you match to O and U locations shown on the diagram. The most common error is to put one sprocket on 180 out.

Socal is correct.

On the 86+ cars you don't have a U so it can confuse you. The top one is rather obvious but the bottom one has a tendency to be set 180 degrees out.

Line up the marks on the sprocket again and look at the at the bottom sprocket. Pay close attention to the [] opening.

[Lance924]

Thanks to the advice here yesterday the balance shafts are now correct and care is running fine.
I do have a high pitched noise from the belt area which increases with rpm.I have double checked the belt to make sure it is not Overtight but the noise is still there.
I did read another thread regarding this noise but cant seem to find it now.
Anybody had the same problem?
Thanks again.

[Techno Duck]

Make sure the idler pulley for the balance shaft is not touching the belt. It should be roughly 1mm from contact.

Other than that, some whine is not uncommon.

[Lance924]

Thanks again Technoduck.
May i say thanks for the advice yesterday first.
As for the noise,yes i do have the idle roller just touching the belt,i will go and ajust now to see if it goes away.

[Lance924]

I have made sure that the idle roller is not touching,but the noise is still there.
I cant tell if the noise is normal as the balance shaft belt was disonected when i bought the car.

[pozican]

It's normal -- When I first did mine I sounded like I had a quiet supercharger. Now I can barely hear it. It just goes away with time.

When you do your 1500 mile retension -- You will hear the whine again

[Lance924]

I'll settle for that,thanks again to you both.

[Gremlin85]

I have to realign my balance belt.

When I first bought my '44 it vibrates. The PO had replaced the belts himself... That was over 5000 miles ago...

Looks like I got some work ahead of me.

I'll be sure to come back to this thread many times

[speedracing944]

When I tensoin the belts I shoot for the low mark on the tension specs for the balance shaft belt. This lowers the whine.

Speedy

[schwank]

I hope so... mine is insanely loud. Though I did not do the rotation of the cam gear counterclockwise 2 degrees before tensioning, so maybe that's it. I need to retension this weekend, hopefully I can kill that sound. It's actually kind of embarassing.

It's got to be the timing belt... I've loosened the balance belt several times, can't go any looser. I've run without power steering and accessory belts and it still makes the noise, so it must be the T Belt.