Saturn Forum - Saturn Enthusiasts Forums - 2000 LS2 3.0L Timing Belt Question

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2000 LS2 3.0L Timing Belt Question

My wife and I bought this Saturn in 2000 and have always relied on the local garages for repairs. Lately, they have been charging WAY too much. I worked on cars when I was young so I decided to do my own repairs. We don't want to buy a new car, so I'll be working on this vehicle for the rest of my life! My wife loves this car. It's been pretty good, but expensive. It only has 117,000 miles. Still looks nice, but various things need replacing. More later. We drove 100 miles to visit family at Christmas... made it home fine, the next morning the timing belt tensioner gave up the ghost and cam 1 retarded one tooth. I've been working on it now since it warmed up and I'm stuck! I have it all apart and I am starting to wonder if I can put it back together!

On YT, people say you don't have to remove the crankshaft pulley to replace the timing belt on a 3.0L engine. With this engine... there is NO way to thread the timing off or On without taking off the crankshaft pulley. I removed the 6 bolts according to the maintenance manual. It doesn't say anything about how exactly to remove the crankshaft pulley/harmonic balancer and it jumps right to building a DIY tool to hold the crankshaft while loosening the crankshaft end bolt. But, the pulley is removed already. What am I missing here! It's NOT falling off and I am wondering if the crankshaft end bolt needs to be removed to get this pulley off? Anyone know how to get this beast of a pulley off???
Thanks Rj

Welcome! I will pull my fsm out and get back to you.

Here's a photo of what I'm looking at. I can't tell if the crank bolt must be removed or if the pulley is just rusted in place. Either way, I have to remove the pulley to change the timing belt.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...e364bc710f.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.sat...58ae1ac6cc.jpg

You do not need to remove the center bolt and the timing belt sprocket unless you need to replace the crank seal or work on the oil pump. The fan belt pulley/balancer comes off after you remove the six little bolts. Your pulley may just be stuck after 18 years and never being taken off.

My manual says you can get the belt off and back on without removing that part.

it looks like your pulley is just rusted to the belt sprocket. Do not remove the center bolt.

Thank you so much! I sprayed it down completely in hope the rust will give way. Might you have a photo of a pulley/balancer off of the mount? I can't find a picture of it anywhere. If I do get this beotch off, I'll post a picture. Any wisdom on how to beat the beotch enough to fall off?

The fsm has drawings only, I can not access the 3.0 I have out right now. I assume that when you removed the six small bolts nothing came off. My power steering pulley was very stuck on my 3.0. I actually bent the p/s pulley a little when I changed my water pump.

Right, the pulley just remained in place. I gently tapped around the pulley, but it sounds like one piece of metal.

The power steering pulley literally fell off. The pump leaked for 18 years and everything is covered in steering fluid. Everything, but the crank shaft pulley/harmonic balancer. I'll just keep spraying it for few days and tapping on it. I wouldn't feel safe using heat because I would melt the rubber.

Any idea how to replace the timing belt without taking the crankshaft pulley off? I don't see enough room anywhere to slide off the bad belt and install the new!

Have you ever replaced or hacked the thermal fuse inside the compressor clutch? I believe the fuse is bad and I'm going to try and fix it. Trying to get the bolt loose to remove the clutch is a difficult. The thing spins and I can't see anyway to hold it still. It's on the car so it's hard to work on.

I have had the coil itself fail and have replaced it with the compressor on the car. How rusty is your car? I live in the NW and cars don’t rust here except on the coast. You need to get the balancer off to replace the timing belt.