Changing timing belt on a Suzuki Samurai 413 Injection

(Partner article by Bastien Poursin)

Please note: Euro4x4parts publishes this information for the benefit of clients but cannot be held responsible for any use or misuse of this advice. Technical summary

Technical summary

Degree of difficulty: 2 / 5

Special tools required:

Job time: about 2 hours

Parts used:

The timing belt is a key element for good engine performance. In a Samurai, like in many vehicles, a toothed belt is used to distrubute movement. Besides wearing out, this belt can break and cause serious damage to the engine.

It's recommended, as a general rule, to replace the timing belt after a maxim use of 100.000 km or after 5 years of use. Those values are maximums and should be reduced when you use the vehicle a lot (specially when used for heavy and hard All-Terrain, pulling a heavy trailer, with an optimized engine etc ...).

This job was carried out on a Suzuki 1998 model, the owner bought brand new to go hunting. The vehicle has low mileage, (20.000 km) and has not been overworked. Nevertheless the original timing kit was now over 10 years old and couldn't be trusted any more - it was time to replace it.

Changing the timing belt requires replacing some peripheral parts such as the belt tensioner and sometimes, if not replaced recently, the belt accessories. In this case, considering the age of the vehicle and to prevent future problems, we decided to combine it with the replacement of the water pump which is situated under the timing case.

Hands on

To access the timing case, the first thing you have to do is remove the radiator and everything that surrounds it.

Start by draining the coolant, please dispose of it carefully because it's very polluting. In order to do this you'll have to disconnect the upper and lower hoses. Undo the hoses and then remove the plastic shroud that protects the fan. The fan is secured with some clips which might be hard to remove. To get access to the lower clips you have to remove the front grille. Carefully remove the radiator, (the plastic flanges are extremely fragile). Now you can remove the fan, just 4 nuts and it's done. Next step is to remove the alternator belt after having loosened it. Now it's time for the crankshaft pulley.

You've now finished the first stage of the disassembly, time for the distribution. Remove the plastic protecting cover and be careful to keep the seal.

Now with the help of the crankshaft nut, turn the distribution belt round to align the reference points needed for correct fixation, you'll see there's a marker on the upper pinion and another on the lower one. Those markers correspond with the position at "high dead point", which means the position with less risk for the valves and pistons.

Release the tensioner and remove it. Remove the belt. If you have also thought about replacing the water pump, now it is a good time to do it. To do this remove the nuts and then carefully lever it off with a screwdriver. Be careful no to drop the 2 small silicone seals. Clean the area where the seal should go with sandpaper. Degrease and then clean off with a short blast of air from the compressor

Now apply silicon sealant to the new water pump and fit it into position.

Now you can mount the new tensioner Check the alignment using the marker point and fit the belt starting at the crankshaft pinion. Keep the belt tight between the 2 pinions at opposite side of where the tensioner is placed. Tighten the belt with the use of the tensioner leaving at bit less then 1 cm of moving space in the middle of the longest part. Tighten the locking nut of the tensioner to 11Nm and the bolt to 26 Nm.

The job is almost done. All that remains is to turn the engine over twice to check that all is aligned properly. If everything goes well and if it's perfectly aligned with the 2 marker points you can remount the whole assembly in reverse order.

Good luck!

Thanks to LM4x4 from Montereau (+331.60.57.57.57) for the help with this job.

Photo report:

1. timing kit - CKD1105 + Water pump - KPO1035

2, 3 and 4: Disconnection of upper hose of the cooling system – KDU1009

5 and 6: Remove the upper clips from the shroud

7. Disconnection of the lower hose – KDU1010

8 and 9: Remove the front grill

10 and 11: Remove the lower clips from the shroud

12. Remove the radiator locating pins

13. Remove the radiator - KRA1031

14. Remove the fan

15. Loosen the alternator GAL1055 or GAL1056

16. Remove the V belt - CTZ2018

17. Unbolt the crankshaft pulley

18. Remove the crankshaft pulley

19. Undo the timing cover

20. The timing cover

21. The timing belt and the tensioners

22. Loosen the mounting bolts on the water pump

23. Loosen the timing tensioner

24. Undo the tensioner mechanism

25. The marker point for the fixation of the distribution at the case (camshaft) indicates the “high dead point”

26. The marker for the fixation of the distribution at camshaft pulley, this point should be aligned with the marker point shown on photo 25

27. The marker point for the fixation of the distribution of the crankshaft pulley should be aligned with the marker which looks like an arrow on the case

28. Remove the timing belt

29. Remove the tension mechanism

30. Unscrew the last screws of the water pump

31. Lift out the water pump

32. Water pump

33.

34.

35 and 36: Clean complete pump and seal

37. Clean/degrease

38. Dry it using an air pistol

39. When the seal isn't in perfect condition any more: replace the pump applying some silicone paste...

40. ...if still OK, replace the pump with the paper gasket.

41, 42 and 43: place the tensioner of the distribution belt.

44. After 10 years, the belt had started to dry out and hardeb, the best thing to do was to replace it.

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