Took a few shots of the timing belt install.

[Nick Gustas]

On my car if I lined up the line on the flywheel instead of the 0, that seemed to be TDC at the distributor, don't know if that's right for a non turbo, but I just took pictures of the cam gear alignment with the flywheel at the line and put it back the way it was since the car runs good. I also made marks on the cam gear and backer plate as well as taking a picture of the cam gear mark near the belt, I won't post these as your car may vary.

I didn't take as many pictures of the process as I thought I would since it's so easy once you're in there, I wasn't sure what to take a picture of, the job was very pleasant. The sjmautotechnik text instructions are all you really need.

Some of my methods may have been brutish, but it idles perfectly and I didn't break anything.



I had no crank holding tool and no torque wrench that would go to 332 ft/lbs, so..

380 ft/lb impact wrench to the rescue, took about one second to remove the crank bolt:



I removed the cam bolt with the same method and results.

I guess I was lucky, or maybe it's supposed to work like this, but I was able to remove the cam gear and crank pulley with my hands, pulled real straight and they popped off.



Idler pulley was removed by prying with a pair of box end wrenches behind it, came right out.

Install was simple:



Installed new cam and crank seals, popped out after a bit of fighting with a screwdriver, pressed them in with a large socket, camseal example:




I reinstalled the crank pully with the impact wrench turned down a notch, it's real close to the speced 332ft/lb torque value.



I torqued the cambolt with a torque wrench, used a large screw driver to hold the cam gear still.

After checking for proper alignment and tensioning the timing belt with the water pump, I test fired the car. It hadn't been run in almost a week and still started instantly, kinda cool to watch the exposed timing belt spin.

[TPW]

I timed my turbo the same way and ran it for a few thousand miles with no bad side effects, but I think my mpg's may have suffered for it. The line on the fly wheel is not the tdc. The zero is a few degrees from it. I used a fine copper brush to clean up the flywheel so I could see it. Since I re-timed using the zero the car runs smoother, but I have not yet checked the mpg's.

[tonyj]

I would count on the '0' mark on the flywheel to be the most dependable mark. The one on the dampener pulley lining up with the casting mark or the dimple in the sheet metal timing cover should be the same but not as easy to sight as the flywheel mark. The distributor allignment is secondary to these and the camshaft pully alignment.

If is runs good you must be righ on. One tooth off is very noticable.

Tony
'91 100Q 5spd
New TB in Dec

[Nick Gustas]

If the timing was right before it's still good, if not, it's the same

I can't wait for my copy of the service manual to show up, what does the line signify anyway? 5-10 degress before TDC? Any particular symptoms of the cam gear being off other than low power? It idles smooth and revs quickly.

[Nick Gustas]

I fixed the bent cover that was scuffing on the gear, and you can see the curved mark I made prior to removal. the cam gear dimple is on the lower left just before the belt touches.

[TPW]

The line is called the "ignition timing mark" and depending on the model it's 3 to 6 degrees off of tdc. I mentioned in an earlier post that I double checked my tdc mark by placing a long screwdriver in the no. 1 spark plug hole and watching its' movement as I rotated the crank.
I think by being aligned on the wrong mark (as I was) the engine will not work as it was intended.

[TPW]

On my 86 the cam dimple is on the backside and lines up with the top of the head where the valve cover sits on it.

[cuatrokoop]

The '87 5kq had a dimple on both sides of the cam cog. The new pulley just has one mark on the back, and is silver in color vs the brass/bronze color of the old (original, broken) one.

[RussB]

You've made this job look less intimidating. Maybe when it becomes time, I'll try it myself. Thanks.

[Nick Gustas]

with the crank at 0 the dimple tooth is half enagaged with the belt, the cam lobes look centered over cylinder one when I eyeball them through the oil filler. I can take a picture real quick if wanted. If I lined up the dimple with the valve cover it'd be almost an 1/8th turn.

This is a non turbo 2.3 if it makes any difference.

I only test drove it a few miles, but it seemed torquey enough for what it is.