Timing belt change on S4. Need some advice. I love you.

[woodyracing]

hey if you happen to have those, for sure use them.  All I'm sayin is buying a wrench specifically for that purpose isn't necessary.  As for the flat-head screwdriver "slipping" i've done it this way dozens of times just in the last couple months and its no more likely to slip off than a wrench.  Also, its a screwdriver and your twisting, not prying, not hammering, not wedging, just twisting with very little torque.  You could slip off of that pulley 100 times and never come close to scratching anything.   Hell we probably have a Ducati tool at the shop somewhere for that purpose but its not worth the time spent going to get it.

[corndog67]

You mean you really don't have to use the "laser"?   What's better, too lose or too tight?   Will too lose jump a tooth, or too tight start wearing on bearings and such?   Is it that critical (laser)?

[CETME]

I think Lasers are the cure-all for everything. Want to get pregnant? use a laser. want to get your boss fired? use a laser! Need to fry up bacon? use a laser! 

As much as I love lasers, I don't have any, so I set the tension on the belts by what Speeddog told me in this post. So far, so good.

[woodyracing]

I just wanna know how you give me crap for the way I turn the pulley yet you set your belt tension using a method you heard from a guy that heard from a guy thats worked on a "lot" of Ducatis.  You might have a better tool to turn the pulley but at the end of the day my belts are tensioned to factory specs, yours might be within 25% of that spec.

[corndog67]

I know this is old, but I figured if anyone was curious, a 22mm offset wrench combined with a 12mm offset wrench works perfect for the adjuster eccentric and fuji nut. There is tons of room to work. These are Bahco brand tools, I bought them in Denmark. If anyone is interested in them, PM and I'll bring some home for anyone who wants them.

Those wrenches are Swedish.   Will a Ducati start after being worked on by Swedish wrenches?

[CETME]

I just wanna know how you give me crap for the way I turn the pulley yet you set your belt tension using a method you heard from a guy that heard from a guy thats worked on a "lot" of Ducatis.  You might have a better tool to turn the pulley but at the end of the day my belts are tensioned to factory specs, yours might be within 25% of that spec.

I would have figured that when I said your bike would burst into flames, burning your house down and killing owls all from using a screwdriver, would have made it obvious that I was joking.

[CETME]

Those wrenches are Swedish.   Will a Ducati start after being worked on by Swedish wrenches?

They are a Swedish company, but they are in fact made in Argentina.... so they'll do just fine.

[gage]

You mean you really don't have to use the "laser"?   What's better, too lose or too tight?   Will too lose jump a tooth, or too tight start wearing on bearings and such?   Is it that critical (laser)?

A microphone and guitar tuner measuring in HZ also work for this task. I have used this method and verified the results twice against the laser tool... Both times were within plus/minus 5 hz. Total cost was 5 bucks for the mic and some time spent finding some freeware guitar tuner.

Others have posted better details on the method

[CETME]

Well, an update on the belt tension... So far so good, everything is great.

The 45 degree twist method has worked perfectly for MY bike, Which includes dozens of 120mph 7k+rpm runs for hours on the Autobahn.