Timing Belt Question

[skip2949]

I recently ran into my front bumper (85 5K)with my riding lawnmower last week and it completely fell off the car, no joke! Upon inspection, the two bolts under the bumper were gone, im amazed that it didnt fall off before now. Anyways, I pulled two bolts off my parts car and went to reinstall the bumper when i noticed some sort of rubber gasket near the lower part of the timing belt, completely tore away from the car. I am no mechanic, but is this some sort of lower cover for the timing belt? An inch or so of the timing belt is exposed, and it has me worried. Also, a square plastic (flimsy) box of some sort was "taped" inside the bumper cover and i was wondering if anybody had an idea of what purpose this serves. Any help is appreciated

[SteveAngry]

the rubber gasket you are talking about is the timing belt cover gasket. This is a black rubber strip that runs all along the outside of the cover itself. Does this sound right? If the one you have is ripped, just replace it with a new gasket. Can't imagine them costing much...

Having a small area of the timing belt exposed could be bad. Water, rocks, etc could get in there and damage the belt...

As far as the "litttle plastic box" goes I'm not sure what it's there for. I'll take a look in the morning and if I can figure out what it does I'll let you know...

Steve Ankney
88 5000
Holland, MI