13 years since an MOT

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Foeux

With everyone fretting about cambelts, based on my sample size of one, WHAT A LOAD OF RUBBISH!

For fun, I 'checked' how strong an outgoing cambelt of maybe 10yr old or more was.

On one end of the cambelt was a V8 Range Rover classic, on the other was my Volvo.

It was in gear with the hand brake on and chocked. The range rover dragged the Volvo a good way before the cambelt eventually snapped due to a shock load. The chock (a 28lb sledge hammer) jammed against a raised drain cover which made the Volvo jump in the air over the obstacle which snapped the belt.

My chum and I were very pleased with our gentleman-science and also thrilled at how strong the cambelt was.

What you say about timing belts is correct, it's very difficult to snap them doing what you did.

Most belts either shear across at an angle (comparatively rare) or strip the teeth. If you had two blocks machined with teeth that fitted the belts teeth profile and had a clamp to hold the belt into the teeth so all the pulling load was placed purely on the teeth and repeated your test, i'm confident you would get very different results, especially if you used the Volvo to try pulling the Rangie as the Rangie should be heavier so would make a better anchor.



That timing belt certainly wouldn't stand up to the test i suggest and probably wouldn't last long on your test either!