Have a couple of weeks off work soon, and the chain on my 77k Felicia is getting pretty noisy now. The sump gasket and/or crankshaft oil seal is leaking, so comtemplating doing the chain. I have the 98 power steering model, and have read that this can be a pig to get the sprockets off.

I am limited to doing the job on the road outside my house, and have the Haynes for it, but would appreciate some 1st hand experience. I'm loathed to take her to bits when she's running ok, but think its about time it was done....

Any suggestions or laymans terms opinions on how much "fun" this will be?

It's not too hard. Some I've done the sprockets (or more to the point, the cam sprocket) have been hard to get off, but most of them have been dead easy - I've found that many things come off easily if you give an even pull on both sides of them, but if you pull one side only they'll stick; obvious really! The rest of it is straightforward; make sure that you have everything you need, that you clean up the sump and around the gasket before you take it off (so no dirt gets inside), and that you rotate the engine to the "right" position before finally removing the sprockets - this makes refitting a piece of cake. I also have found with other things that taking a picture of the timing BEFORE you remove it is a good idea - then you have something absolutely concrete to refer back to; there have been some cases of mis-marked sprockets (there was a thread on one of the boards), which could complicate matters, but if you have lined everything up properly then it really is dead easy. The other parts are easy to remove and replace. Be methodical and it won't take long (2 hours if you're taking your time), and it'll go smoothly.

Thats the sort of answer i was looking for :yes:

Rotate the engine? take it i need to move one of the engine mounts then...?

Thats the sort of answer i was looking for :yes:

Rotate the engine? take it i need to move one of the engine mounts then...?

No, he means manually turn the engine crank so it lines up correctly.

One thing to watch out for is getting the right timing chain kit.

JoRily is the best place to get it, my son got his from the local Skoda garage and they gave him the wrong one , TWICE!!

Although the manual says there were only two basic engine variants of the 1.3 engine in the Felly (pre and post 97/98), a few engines from the old Estelle line also turned up; that was my son's problem, he had a 68bhp version from the Estelle, and the sprocket was a different size.

His was a "P" plate, so had the SPI engine, so you should be OK with the MPI.

When I did mine it probably took me about 4-5 hours taking my time, having a couple of coffee breaks and cleaning the old sump gasket off (not fun!)

Just take your time and if you find yourself stuck etc just step back and think!

One thing that cought me out was the fact that there wasn't actually enough clearance to remove the crankshaft pulley and had to undo the engine mount on that side and drop the engine down by an inch or so to get it off.

When you rotate the engine it is easiest to do as it described in the haynes to jack up the drivers wheel, engage fifth gear and rotate the wheel. You can do it without removing the spark plugs but you just encounter a little bit of resistance. You then line up the timing marks on the crankshaft pulley (give it a good wipe round there first or you WON'T see them!)

Also a good opportunity to check the condition of the oil pump drive gears since you have to remove those anyway and check the condition of the crankshaft etc.

Phil

I think the kit from Jo contains everything you are likely to need including a new oil filter

cheers for that folks, ive already looked the kit up on Jorily, got a voltage regulator from them some time ago and were spot on with part and delivery.

I had read somewhere on here that would have to move the engine a bit to get the pulley off, thats why i was confused with the rotating engine bit. makes sense i would have to rotate the camshaft..

Might have to delay the job a week or so, but will let you know how i get on!

You may or may not have to drop the engine down to get the bottom pulley off - it depends on both the bottom pulley (some are wider than others) and also the engine position (there's a fair bit of leeway in the mountings, some are nearer to the inner wing than others). If you do, it's just a case of loosening the long bolts of the end engine mounting from underneath until you can get the pulley off - there has been enough length on all the bolts on the ones I've needed to do, but obviously you need to be careful that you don't go too far and let the engine drop (put a jack and a block of wood underneath just in case).