This is a dumb question, maybe the way someone worded their post threw me off but here it is.

So I have done serpentine belts on other vehicles and looked up and read threads on how to do it on an evo 8 got the belt from amazon I plan on having a shop do a 60K timing service relatively soon but noticed that my serpentine belt is cracking and just old so decided to switch it out

But an interesting post I came across was that someone was able to rotate the crankshaft pulley counter clock wise by accident when putting this belt on messing up the timing. Shouldn't that be impossible since there is a timing belt already on the crankshaft sprocket behind the cover and if by the off chance that you did rotate the crankshaft pulley either way everything else would move as well? I am just confused and if someone would be able to explain this I would appreciate it before I change the serpentine belt so if it is true that you can move the crankshaft pulley when the timing belt is on then I take the necessary precautions when switching out the serpentine belt.

Thanks

 

the way i recall this is that the tension setup only really works in one direction, and if you try to rotate the engine backwards it could cause the belt to skip teeth. It's not difficult to rotate the crank with a socket wrench. I really don't see how anyone could screw this up, unless your working in the dark or high. Just make sure to take off the dust shield and its obvious whats the tensioner and whats the crank pulley. It's not like if you move the crank backwards a little bit your instantly screwed, you would probably need to really crank on that thing, as you would if you thought it was a tensioner.

 

I've changed the serpentine belt a number of times and never had a reason to turn the crank.

 

 

Ok thats what I thought. I know the tensioner for the serpentine belt has that 1/2 inch drive square to pull back. I don't plan on taking off the timing belt. Just want to replace the serpentine belt and I am having a shop do the timing belt in the near future. I was more scared of the crank pulley moving back when I put the new serpentine belt back on. I heard people were having trouble putting it on since its a new belt. I was thinking the tension and the force when putting the new serpentine belt on might move the crank pulley when I am putting the serpentine belt on but you cleared it up

 

As neither do I but I heard a member accidentally pulled on the crank pulley messing up the timing.

 

Thats what I was thinking but it happened to someone so I was just looking for some clarification

 

The FSM says don't turn the engine backwards. If you're parked in gear and someone taps your front bumper the engine will get turned backwards. I never heard of someone writing, "I came out of the mall and my engine blew up in the parking lot" lol. With a tensioner in good working condition, adjusted properly, there shouldn't be a problem. But you write you are at 60K on a belt job. So, maybe the belt has stretched and the tensioner is out of adjustment. So, don't turn the engine backwards.

 

If someone taps you i bet it gets absorbed by the bumper cover -> supports before its rotating the engine backwards. You probably gotta be hit pretty damn hard to roll the car backwards, and at that point the engine is probably not on the top of your priority list. Last time i checked evo's didn't do too well in crash testing That being said though, I always park my car in neutral. Old habit from my remote starting days.

 

When working on engines, when aligning timing marks, with the car in gear I'll roll the engine over by just pushing against the front bumper with my knees. I don't do this in 1st gear but then I'm not a car. So, easier than you think. My little WRX with a manual transmission came with guards on three of the four cam sprockets to protect against the very parking lot incident I described.

 

I believe you, i just assume the parking brake is engaged in these scenarios. So force applied to the car would have to be greater then the friction of the rear wheels on the ground. Im sure it happens, and i wonder how far back you would have to push the car.

 

SERPENTINE/DRIVE/ACCESSORY BELT is what I am changing not the timing belt. The TIMING BELT and all those pulleys are being done by a shop relatively soon.

How would the serpentine tensioner be out of adjustment? Isn't it just under tension like every other serpentine tensioner pulley?

 

You were talking about messed up timing and that means timing belt an its tensioner. The timing belt tensioner is adjustable and the accessory belt tensioner is not.

 

Ok then we just misunderstood each other. In my initial post I was talking about changing the serpentine belt because its old and then said that I will have a 60K service done soon by a shop. I just want to change the serpentine belt. Got all the information I need now thanks for your time and posts.