Road trip

With a trip to Kristiansand looming for TFW i really needed to get the drive belts in the engine bay replaced, i spotted they were, shall we say, past their best on my check of the car just after i bought it. With one thing or another, mainly time and money being in short supply, i didn't get round to attempting this until a couple of days before the trip, needless to say i ran into problems. The main culprit being rusted bolts. So i had to admit defeat, douse the offending nut and bolt in WD40, and risk the journey as they were (about 650km round trip).
This was the first real test of TFW in my ownership and it didn't disappoint or let me down.
For a 25 year old it still drives well, a few niggles with the change on the autobox but nothing serious, it gobbled up the km's without a worry.

So this week it was back to the workshop to change its belts.
There are four belts in total, a tandem setup for the water pump and alternator, one for the power steering pump and one for the air condition pump. See the cracks in the belts - not good.


The killer is that to be able to remove the belts driving the alternator and water pump you have to first remove the powersteering and AC belts, may as well change them all eh.
From bottom to top - power steering, air condition and twin belts for alternator and water pump.



A week soaking in WD40 had done the trick and with the airfilter housing removed for easier access the belts came off no problem.
They were a long way past their prime.



Only three new belts were put on as i couldn't get hold of a belt for the air condition pump so to save time and frustration loosening the pump bolts i just cut the belt off, don't really think i'm going to be needing air condition in winter in Oslo so i'll sort this out later.