I changed the water pump, timing belt and idlers
With the engine at TDC, the small mark on the crank sprocket and
intermediate shaft sprocket for the cam timing belt should be pointing
at each other (also along the C/L of the center of these pulleys). Then
the cam sprocket has two little arrows (triangles) opposite each other
that point at the center of two holes in the sprocket. You should line
up these arrows with the junction of the #1 cam tower cap and the head
(you will be able to see this clearly through those holes). Then install
the belt without moving any of these. Start at the crank and work to
the intermediate shaft, then to the cam. There should not be any obvious
slack in the belt as you do this. Finally get the belt past the
tensioner, tension the belt. If you do not have the tensioner tool, then
the belt is properly tensioned when you cannot rotate the belt more
than 90 degrees or 1/4 turn midway between the cam and intermediate
sprockets. You should turn the engine over a couple of revolutions and
recheck every thing.
One more method of setting the timing belt tension is that there should
be approx. 5/16" of deflection from center possible midway between the
cam sprocket and the crankshaft sprocket, about where the head meets the
block. Also, 90 degrees twist should just be possible midway between
the cam sprocket and the intermediate sprocket. I pulled this from the
Haynes book.
An easy way to check your cam timing without having to look at the
engine sprockets, is to turn your engine to TDC using the flywheel mark,
and look at your cam sprocket. Make sure the little arrows are lined up
on the cam bearing seam. I use a mirror to get a straight look at it,
since your head won't fit in there :)This will ensure cam-crankshaft alignment, and the intermediate shaft
alignment is not quite as critical and and be a tooth or two off since
it only times the distributor, which of course can itself be rotated
when you tune-up your car.NOTE: After replacing the timing belt , turn the engine over a few times
by hand and recheck the tension and timing mark alignment . Get your timing light, if it has an advacne dial, set it to 12M-0, if
not set the timing to 0M-0, then shine the light into the little hole in
the side of the timing belt cover. You should see a hole in the cam
sprocket in there, if it's in the middle of the hole, cam timing is OK,
if it's towards the front, it's advanced, towards the back, it's
******** a tooth. The timing belt is adjusted by a counter weight tool. Just the weight of
the tool is all the tension you need. I check with a tool rental or
parts store to see if you can rent one. There is very little tension on
the belt, to much and it makes noise and to little and belt will jump.
So if you can, find the tool.
