As title says, just did my first timing and balance belt. My first on any car. A few impressions for anyone who cares.
Four years (about 15k miles) ago, I had a shop to the belts, waterpump, and rollers, so I just did the belts this time. First off, it's really not that hard, just a little nerve racking, since a mistake can be so costly. It took me three days, working a few hours here and there each day. The most time was spent getting the tension set.
For the record the arnnworx 9131-944 is the biggest POS ever. If you ever feel inclined to waste $52, I'll send you my paypal address. I did the belts last week, and redid the tension again today. I could here water pump groan, so the car sat till I could do it again. This time I did the twist and waterpump method, and no more groan. I'm not 100 percent sure of my skills, and am contemplating having the local 944 shop double check the tension.
The 24/27 mm Combination Thin Wrench from arnnworx works great after one modification. See pic below.
The wrench might have worked fine, without cutting it, if I had drained the coolant and removed the upper radiator hose. Since I wasn't doing the waterpump, I had no great desire to remove the hose and the end kept catching on the hose.
Harbor freight to the rescue again. This extendable rachet is great for finding TDC.
3/8" x 1/4" Dual Drive Extendable Ratchet
You can look through the housing for the OT mark, while rotating the engine. All you need is a step stool.
To top it all off, the old belts still looked brand new and you could even still read the conti label on them. Oh well.
Special thanks to clarks and this forum, or I would never have even attempted this myself.