I'm doing the timing belt on my 2005 montero LTD. I've got to the point where I need to remove the accessory bracket but its being held in by the A/C mounting bracket which it shares a mounting bolt with. the A/C bracket is over the accessory bracket and I can't get it off.

The A/C is totally sandwiched beneath the P/S and the front axle is right under it. According to my manual I would need to remove the A/C compressor from the bracket in order to remove a bolt that is buried behind it.

Just when I thought I was close...Can anyone tell me what I need to do before I break something!!!!!

thanks.

 

Ok...I got it. I moved the power steering over a couple inches and was able to then remove the mounting bolts on the A/C compresser. I then loosened the A/C bracket enough to get the accessory bracket out!!

I think I'll call it a day, I've got the timing belt fully exposed and ready to change. I'll pick it up again tomorrow. The belt looks terrible with lots of cracking on the smooth side. I'm glad I decided to do this now.

One other question, is there a trick to pulling the cam seals/crank seal? I figured I'd do it since i'm in there. I'm also replacing the water pump.

 

Well, after two days of wrenching, I got it back together. It fired up and what did I hear? A pretty good valve knock!!!!!

The first thing I did was tear it apart to check to see if the timing belt was off a tooth, it wasn't.

Now I'm stumped and not sure what to do next. I'm afraid the answer is to pull the heads.

What would you guys do? I've got it torn down to the timing belt again but can't decide what my next move is.

Has anyone heard of damaging the valves while going the timing belt?

 

Well, after agonizing about what to do, I just put it back together and guess what. The valve noise had diminished to almost nothing and after a short test drive the knock is gone. I can't explain what happened. Any Ideas? Oh well, back to fixing the 4x4 system.

 

These engines occasionally get the valve slap noise. The noise often happens after the truck sat for long time without running. It has hydraulic valve lash adjusters and if the oil bleeds out from one of them, you get nasty noise from that. In most cases it will self correct once you run the engine and if it doesn't do it you can bleed the lash adjusters. Make sure your oil level is good. Start the engine and warm it up. Then vary the RPM from idle to about 3,000 (steady increase over 15 second time), drop to idle for 15 sec, steady increase to 3,000, drop to idle (15 sec). Repeat this about 10-15 times. This will have effect of bleeding any air bubbles from the lash adjusters. In most cases this will take care of the noise you are getting and you do not need to do anything else.