So I’m getting ready to do the timing belt this weekend on my ’87 wagon. After I got the car, I did the normal tune-up stuff…plugs, wires, cap and rotor, tighten the throttle cable, change tranny fluid, etc. I was checking the timing and noticed it was WAY off…like it wasn’t even near a mark on the crank pulley and would be at about 35-40 degrees. I say "about" cuz there's no marks that far out. The marks were also jittery under the timing light so I took these as signs that the timing belt probably jumped time, could snap at any minute (thank jee-bus it didn't driving her home from Colorado!) and that I should not drive it until I get the belt changed. So I have all my nice new genuine Nissan parts now…water pump, cam and crank seals, tensioner and spring, t-belt, accessory belts, thermostat and CHTS with new harness. I’ve done a lot of my own work on most of the cars I’ve owned so I can spin a wrench when required but this is my first timing belt. And economics dictate I have to do this on my own instead of taking it to a shop. I have a couple questions that I can’t really find answers for:

1. CHTS…is this sitting in coolant and need thread sealer?
2. Once the crank is rotated to TDC of #1 cylinder compression stroke, I assume I’ll be able to tell if it jumped time by the camshaft marks not lining up. Is the easiest way to align a camshaft to remove the valve cover and loosen the rocker shaft bolts, per the FSM, so I don’t have to fight with valve spring tension and go “whoops…too far; s**t…not enough; are you kidding me?”
3. Seals…FSM notes to apply some engine oil to the seal before installing. Inner (sprocket) and outer (cylinder head) sealing surface? One and not the other? Something other than oil better to use?
4. This thread I found seems to be the most helpful with getting the tension correct…anyone concur? http://forums.maxima.org/1st-2nd-gen...ally-hard.html
5. Anything else I should know? I read about removing the starter and wedging a screwdriver between the flexplate in order to “freeze” the engine and remove the crank pulley bolt, need to keep all the timing cover bolts in order, that the crank seal COULD be horrendous to get at, remove the ignition coil wire to prevent accidental start up, don’t get the accessory belts too tight, all the usual safety CYA warnings, etc. Hopefully between Haynes, FSM, here and the rest of the internet, I’ve found what I need to know about doing this...but I'll take any additional last second wisdom.

 

All I can suggest is after doing all of this please don't rush to crank it by the key to see if it works or not. There is a safer way in case one is wrong and bends a bunch of valves= more money and down time.

After you supposedly sync the top end back to the bottom take all the spark plugs out (if you haven't already). Turn the motor over by hand first. Therefor if there is a potential for a bent valve you'll know b4 causing chaos. Then all you have to do is go back and check your work.

 

You can check to see if your valve timing is on by either looking @ the crank TDC on the crank pulley and while looking at the camshaft sprockets and their timing marks requiring you to remove only the upper timing covers....But looking at your ignition timing you're not looking at the actual valve timing.....unplugging your water temp sensor should allow you to view a more solid timing signal! Hopefully your distributor just needs to be adjusted, have you tried adjusting the timing first?

 

Thankfully I'm not impatient when it comes to car repair...I research everything to death before I jump in. There's more than enough threads on here talking about all the variations of bent valves and engine damage--I can't afford to be one of them!

I adjusted the timing back to 20, it ran like crap (no power), bumped it to 22-23 and it feels about 90% there...still a very slight hesitation on acceleration. I'll recheck it after I get everything back together. Right now, the distributor is about in the middle of its range of adjustment so I'm hoping it's not too far off once I can turn the key.

I didn't have as much time as I wanted to work on it today...coolant is drained, belts and hoses are off, ran into a space issue with the water pump pulley--my socket set with 10mm wouldn't fit and 10mm wrench wasn't working well either, couldn't find anything suitable around the house to lock the flexplate in place (no big chain wrench either) and then had to get cleaned up for dinner plans. So the water pump and crank pulleys are still on. Bright and early tomorrow though...

 

I can now see why some people have said that small hands are an asset for this job. Finally got the WP pulley and top cover off. Firewall-side cam seal is definitely leaking but the timing marks look like they all line up. Front camshaft looks like it's off one tooth...will confirm with daylight tomorrow. The belt itself doesn't look too bad...not seeing any fraying or damaged teeth but it does feel oily. I'm interested to see what kind of shape the tensioner is in. And even with everything removed, I'm not looking forward to replacing the CHTS.

 

A couple thoughts now that I’ve finally wrapped this up…

I’ve learned that this is a VERY original 110K mile car that has not seen salt. It had the original thermostat in it…stamped 86-7. It also had the original tensioner as well (Napa timing belt was on it...could just barely see the marks). The water pump was a replacement held in with LOTS of RTV and barely any tension on the bolts. The “wedge a big screwdriver into the flexplate” method was by far the best in order to remove and reinstall the crankshaft pulley bolt. I got the cam sprocket bolts off and on by wedging a deep wall socket or two into the sprocket holes either side of casting protrusions on the heads…worked well to immobilize the sprockets. The CHTS was actually the easiest thing to replace once the cam sprockets and rear-most timing cover were off…just 4 screws holding the back cover on and then access was as easy as it gets. The prongs were corroded so the new got a little bit of dielectric grease.

The seals caused the most headache…not the easiest to get out. I did spray some WD-40 on them to help ease removing them with a seal puller and ended up nicking the end of the camshaft. Since the cam sprockets cover the areas nicked, I’m not concerned but went over the nicks with some 400/600 grit paper to make sure the sprockets went back on without issue. I used a 36mm socket and hammer to drive in the front seal, looked around the house and found the gland nut from my new rear strut cartridges was perfect for driving in the rear using the cam bolt and washer. Slipping on the new belt was as easy as lining it up at the bottom, threading it around the rear sprocket and getting as many teeth started as I could on the top front, then rotating the sprocket/engine with a wrench clockwise to pull the rest of it around and on...after fiddling with it for an hour. Somewhere there was mention of the “11:20” tensioner trick with the bolt and allen key to get correct tension on the belt along with being able to twist the belt 90 degrees. Very helpful. As far as the drive belts, I am so not a fan of multiple belts that need to have tension set by hand. I love my old Cadillac and Grand Prix in that there’s 1 belt and 1 automatic tensioner that swings up to get a new belt on and tensioned in 2 minutes.

For anyone thinking about doing this themselves for the first time, take your time. If you’ve never done any work on a car before, I wouldn’t make this your first project. Give yourself a couple days. It took me a week since I only could only work on it a bit here and there plus a couple other things while I was in that area--new antenna mast, resealed washer reservoir pump since I found out that was leaking, and oil change.