how hard is it to re-time and put a new t-belt on my 300zxt

[Guest tankglh21]

hey guys,

my '84 300zxt jumped a tooth on the timing belt a while back. i was just wondering how hard it was to put a new belt on and re time it. i should have replaced the belt when i got the car but i guess i learned from my mistake. thanx!

[Doug71zt]

Did you get piston/valve interferance? Any smashed up sparkplugs from broken valves? If you didn't - you're one lucky guy. The belt replacement isn't too bad, all it takes is a manual, tools and time. It's a good idea to do the waterpump when you're in there. Guaranteed that it will go about a month after you do the belt. Murphy's law.

 

Good luck - Doug

[Guest Aaron]

Make sure you use a Nissan Belt. A lot of the aftermarket ones don't have the marks on the belt to line up the pulleys.

[afterdarkZ]

I've used a couple different aftermarket belts and they've all had the right marks. It's a pretty straight forward job. I can do it in under 2 hours but I've done several and have a lot of stuff already removed from the front of the engine. Make sure to do the water pump since one only costs about $25 at Advance Auto. I would also highly reccomend replacing the tensioner AND the stud it mounts on. I had the stud break about a week after I did my timing belt so then I got to replace the heads, too. I've heard of others having the tensioner sieze with the same results.