98 ride that I've posted on befroe but have not been able to work on for weeks.
Tried to do the thermo by removing just one side of the cam and things got moved.
Decided to pulll everything apart and replace it all as described here. Now have the cam locking bar and have figured out which way the holes go (front of cam ovals with holes that cam bar goes in) and obviously that is how the cams line up when in TDC.
So here is my possible dilema:
when i was screwing with the cams (via the front bolt and prior to having all the right tools) i moved them back and forth to re-attatch the belt and am almost possitve one of the bolts lossened. Does This allow the oval hole locking ring to move if the bolt is loosened or is that oval ring attatched somehow so it doesn't move?
That is how the engine is timed obviously so what can I do if it has moved? If anyone is doing the timing belt and has the cams locked with the bar can they take a picture of the cam lobes of each side so I can see what position they are supposed to be in? I can't think of any other way to make sure the cams are in the right position....
Thanks for any input!

 

As long as the cam lock bar locks, you are fine in regards to the cams. Plates that the lock bar sets into are keyed into each cam and it will never be off true. Now the other thing is to align the cams with the crank. There is a faint timing TDC mark on the crank pulley. It should line up with the engine block timing mark some where around 1 o'clock location. Once you line up the crank to the timing mark, you can lock the crank using the crank locking bolt.

 

thnx! that was the stat I was looking for. yea I have the crank locking pin set a tdc with the marks on the engine wall and crank pully. I was hoping those plates could not move and thus giving true cam and crank alignment. now I'll put it all back together with all the new parts. all and all not a bad teardown but you gotta have the right tools.........
looks a lot worse once apart than it actually is. my wife about had a heart attack when she saw the whole front end apart.

 

The wife thing is so true , although mine didn't really care since it was "my" car...

Good luck

 

Just be sure to pretension the belt tensioner with the cam gears loose.

 

cam gears loose? yea I guess I'm a little lost on exactly how that part works. if you have the bar in and its locked how do u loosen them to get the belt on?
so u pull the pin out of the tensioner before putting the belt on?
I've read a ton of info but am a little confused on this.........thx
oh and do u put anything on the water pump housing with the gasket?
ie: sealer of any kind?

 

You need a gear puller. Basically the cam gears are set on cams by friction. So loosen the big bolt in front of the cam. (You don't need to take them out, just loosen them. The BFHs (aka big f@#$ing holes) in the lock bars allow you to loosens the bolt holding the gears) Use a gear puller tool like this to pull the gears loose.

I guess if you don't have one, then you can try to tap with a rubber mallet, but don't yell at me if the gear breaks or gets bent. Anyways, once the gears are loosened, you should be able to spin them freely with hand.

Then you install the timing belt with the tensioner pin in place. At this moment you shouldn't have any tension on the belt. Then you pull the pin out and torque the tensioner per spec (I don't remember so you should look it up.) Because the only point on the belt that is fixed is at the crank pulley, tension on the belt is uniform through out.

If you do not loosen the cam gear, the only place the tension is on from the tensioner is the belt section from the crank pulley to the bank 1 cam gear. Sections from Bank 1 cam to Bank 2 cam will have different tension, and from bank 2 to the crank will have another tension. So when the cam lock bar is removed and all 3 section tension equalize, cams may come off align.

Hope this makes sense.

 

Oh as for the water pump seal, I did not use any seals.

 

thnx, makes a lot of sense. I get your drift on the differences in tension when you don't pull the gears. u essentially get three different pressure points.......I have a feeling some of this was done before but my friggen bro in law can not remember what they did to it before we bought it from them. when did they go to metal fins on the water pump and
is it common for the old timing belt not to be cracked or look worn?
thx for all your help. wanted to go out to the garage today and work on it for a while but we got about 2 1/2 feet of snow here in greater denver and somehow staying inside seems like a wiser choice

 

TB's don't usually looked cracked or worn on the back. You can see some wear on the teeth when you compare it to a new one.

As for the garage and snow. when I was young we didn't have a garage -when we saw snow we knew it was time to go to out in the driveway and change a transmission, clutch, motor, or whatever.