Thread: Zeus timing gears 300 tdi

Originally posted by altech
Hi Guys, came across this web page on Zeus timing gears for my 95 tdi , just wondening has any 1 has gone down this track for replacing the timing belt all together and if so where in Vic did you have this done and what price did it cost for kit and fitting,
cheers4now alex

Recently this has been discussed:

http://www.aulro.com/modules.php?name=Foru...iewtopic&t=8588

Worth the read including the links.

The track is probably a dead end.

The timing belt issue has been put to rest by now and Zeus is not necessarily the answer to the original problem. If your 95 Tdi is still spinning then all is most probably well subject to proper servicing.

G'day altech,

Zeus timing gears are a hot topic, they tend to get people's backs up. Originally they were a good idea to fix an annoying problem - unfortunately they were not that well manufactured and tended to cause even more damage than the original belt.

Since then LR have relased pulley kits to fix the original problem of the timing belt snapping unexpectantly, so there's no real reason to have the conversion these days - apart from a nice-to-have.

Unfortunately because of the Zeus gears reliability issues they aren't even that nice to have. You drive around worrying about them half the time. There have definately been some bad reports about them, and to be honest through the years I have not seen any evidence that they improved them any.

I have them fitted to my '94 300tdi and so far (touch wood) they're ok if a little noisier than the belt.

Apparently they've got a little noisier lately and when I called up the bloke who fitted them they said they had an upgrade kit available to fix that problem, it was only $150! Some such rubbish anyway, "upgrade" kits to fix a problem and you've gotta buy them.

Anyways I've got them now and it's another expensive job to put the belt back, so I'll stick with them for now.

The company that sells them in Australia is YiCaN http://www.yican.com.au/

If you do a search through the forums for "Zeus" or "timing gears" you may find more discussions on the topic.

The write-up on http://www.rovingtheglobe.com/'sec=kit&url...entRejected.asp is well worth the read.

Hi Guys, thanks 4 feed back on that ,has there been something esle on this matter in ? (eg : stronger belts or different gears set-up's.....
cheers alex

G'day altech,

Nah nothing was needed once Land Rover figured out what the problem was and released replacement pulley kits.

Since then I don't think I've even heard of a belt going before they were suppose to be replaced, so nobody (as far as I know) has done anymore research / development on replacing the timing belt.

I know about guys in germany having changed for zeus on their tdis. Was discussed in forums over here - results comparable with what grizzly adams put in. Must be an advantage through lower revs compared with the belt. Discussion ended in ideas of changing for chain drive as is in the Td5 - that nobodys`s offering...

Norbert, cu perhaps next year

Alex. I happen to live in the same town as the rovin'the globe bros. and have seen first hand the problems they encountered with the timing gear set up.
The first one failed completely (twin cab 300tdi) with total destruction of the timing gear case/gears, broken rocker arms, bent pushrods. Luckily due to the alignment of valves to pistons these components seem to survive.
The second one (disco 300tdi) was then pulled down to discover the gear assemblies begining to fail, the problem seemingly commencing with failure of the idler gear bearing components.
Both were retrofitted back to timing belts.
They are back at home at the moment, and am sure would respond to any questions. Contact through www.rovin'theglobe.com
em aze

Ah, the Z gears arise again..

There is a huge posting in the archives of the old LRE forum, if you can find it. Well worth the read.

The pulleys is only part of the problem. There was also a bad batch of belts a few years ago. Hopefully none of these are in circulation now. I know Graeme Coopers changed mine once at 30,000 km, it was fraying & on the way out.

FWIW GCs did the conversion on my 200 tdi. I can only report they performed exactly as advertised. A little more torque low down, a little better throttle response through the range. Noisy at idle, after that you don't notice the difference.

They were still on when I sold the car.

Regards
Max P

stick with the belt, I've had a cam belt snap - 2 new pushrods and 1 rocker and she was all good again.

The reason mine went was the wrong pulleys were used!!!

If I were buying a vehicle with a 300 Tdi in it I would be buying the complete kit (belt / pulley / idlers / gaskets etc) and do the seals while your there - cost about $350 for the after market kit from most of the better suppliers (Karcraft / British 4WD / Ritters etc)

LRH