Over the weekend me and my buddy replaced the timing belt on his wifes 2000 Accord DX. My biggest concern was getting the pulley bolt off, niether of the 1/2" impact guns we had would crack it loose, then we tried a 3/4" gun that was not in such good condition, and it wouldn't remove it either. I ended up using the pulley holding tool that I bought, it is offset a little and it catches the frame rail and holds the pulley perfectly. I then got a breaker bar with the shortest extension that would reach and laid on the garage floor and gave it a nice shove with my foot and the bolt broke loose no problem, boy was I relieved. This accord has 220k miles on it, and all the belts and everything in the car is original, I was amazed at what good condition the timing belt and balancer belt were in. Even the power steering pump belt and alternator belt were still in great condition, but we changed all of them anyway. I replaced both belt tensioners which still looked like new, but since we had them we changed them anyway. The timing marks were very easy to line up, you have to be careful with the balancer pulleys to make sure that they don't drift a tooth when you tension the belt, but with an extra set of hands it is easy to adjust them until they are lined up. We replaced the water pump which the old one still looked to be in great shape. We put it all back together, I adjusted the valves, which the exhaust side was a little loose, the intake side were all still in spec.. Put new plugs, cap, rotor and new plug wires, all OEM Honda stuff. We replaced the power steering pump with a used unit that I got off of ebay for $30, we got lucky, the pump was good and looked almost new. Changed the oil and ATF fluid, I was informed that this was the original tranny fluid and had not ever even been checked, the owner didn't even know there was a dipstick. The fluid was very black, but didn't smell burned at all. We filled it up with coolant and fired it up, and I have to say for a car with 220K miles that has had nothing other than oil changes since it was new, it literally purred like a cat. It did take quite a while to purge all the air out of the cooling system though. My buddies wife was just tickled to death when she test drove the car, she could not believe how quiet it was now. What I observed this weekend with this Accord just proves to me the quality of these cars, even with absolutey no maintenance and 220K miles this Accord is still in great running condition.

 

that's sweet.... I'll bet that tranny fluid change made a BIG difference.... I just had this image of what I must have looked like as I was trying to pull off one of those bolts a while back myself.... sounds like we use the same methods *L*

 

Yeah, the tranny fluid was soooo black, I made sure he bought a total of 10 quarts so he can continure to change the fluid over the next week or so. I think it holds a little over 7 quarts total, so it will take several changes to get all that black soup out of there. Thing is though, for 220K miles on the original fluid, there was very little material on the magnetic drain plug, amazes me.

 

I just completed my first timing belt on my 95 Accord too....and I had 206K miles.....they said I was on borrowed time. That crank bolt was a tough one...I had to use about a 6 foot extended breaker bar to "SNAP" that thing loose. But it spun fee after that. All back together....No leaks and runs good. My belts looked good too. They main one had some play though. I haven't done the valve cover, plug well seals or valve adjustments yet but are on my schedule to be done in the next few weeks.

My tranny fluid hasn't been changed yet either. Its dark but not burnt smelling. I was wondering if changing it would actully hurt it more since all the metal in it now helps the tranny clutches and new fluid would actually make it slip more. I know that is old school thinking but it still scares me....

So how's the 220K mileage tranny running so far since the new fluid was introduced....any prolems?????

Just asking a few questions before I procrastinate about it for a few months......

Thanks