Hi all, my daughter's 96 Tracker has over 70,000 miles on it and I would feel better about her driving it if it had a new timing belt and water pump. I have replaced a timing chain quite a few years ago and am pretty familiar with most small repair jobs.

Has anyone replaced a timing belt and water pump on the 1.6 L 4 cylinder engine? Any advice as to the cost and difficulty of this job would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Here's a fairly recent thread about changing out a timing belt... http://www.zukiworld.com/cgi/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=suzuki_talk;action=display;num=1087253144;start=

Anyone have a rough estimate on the cost to do this yourself vs paying to have it replaced.  Also, is the tensioner a problem with belts like I've read on postings about the Suzuki engines with timing chains. Would it be a good precaution to replace the tensioner? Would I need to adjust the tensioner on the belt? Is there anything else I should inspect or replace while I have it apart?



Thank you for any replies or advice.

the job should take no more than 1 hour for a competant mechanic,and anyone with a bit of basic knowledge should manage it in a couple of hours.the e toolbox link has died but there is a factory manual download here   http://www.hardcore4x4.net/fsm/

Here you go:
http://www1.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/1d/f3/f8/0900823d801df3f8.jsp
The 16V info is toward the bottom.

Thanks for the replies. I think I can probably do this, but step 15 has me a little concerned.  The earlier thread mentioned that it may not be necessary to loosen the rocker arm adjustment nuts. I would rather not get into that since it's pretty much unfamiliar territory to me.

Any opinions on why this is necessary when replacing the belt. Is it possible to skip this and still get the proper tension by other means?

Thanks again to everyone.

I would suggest that you take it to a technician if you are afraid to mess with the rocker arms cause if it needs a timing belt it needs the valve lash adjusted anyway. Get it wrong and you'll burn a valve.

You'll probably find your water pump and tensioner are in good shape. If I recall, the belt is under $25, but the idler will be about $50... and the waterpump around $30. I prefer Gates belts... just better made than the ROC belts, IMHO. You will want to replace the valve cover gasket while you are at it. (BTW, Gates sells a kit of idler & belt for $10 less than individual parts. NAPA sells them... a bit more money than the discounters.)

Doing it youself, count on 6 to 8 hours. I think the flat rate calls for 2+ hours. Locally they used to do the job for $120, belt included, but they wanted over $250, plus parts, this time around. For nearly $500, I did it myself.

Your idler may be fine for the next 40K miles... when the next belt is "due". I've seen them w/ 100K miles that felt as good as new. Same for the water pump, if you've changed your antifreeze every 2 or 3 years. Give them a turn and check for looseness. (Compare them to the new units for feel.) Oh, and you'll want all the parts on hand before tearing it down. (Ordering time can be days in some towns.)

The valves are backed off to keep the valve train from moving the cam. Many mechanics don't back this off. You will need to adjust your valves when you are done, though, so this isn't a big time loss. The spark plugs are already out, so it might be time to check on replacing them, too.