Alright well come sunday im taking the plung eon the timing belt. Now I have a question with the timing portion regarding the TDC part. Now technically if none of the cam sprockets turn during the removal of the crank pulley you shouldnt have to worry bout TDC cause lets be honest it takes more than taking a belt off to turn cams and everything else plus the key keeps the crank pulley and sproket aligned . So when they refer to TDC in the tutorials is this concerning a motor that may have had a belt brake off and timing is out of whack ? I just dont understand why you have to worry about TDC if nothing turns during removal of the belt.

 

Can anyone explain to me why my dashboard lights go slightly dim when I am off the gas and brighten back up as soon I get back on the gas? It is quite obvious when I am stopped at a light and start driving again. Thanks

 

Sounds like an alternator or battery have both checked out. More or less alternator since it fluxuates with the RPM's.

 

Alright well come sunday im taking the plung eon the timing belt. Now I have a question with the timing portion regarding the TDC part. Now technically if none of the cam sprockets turn during the removal of the crank pulley you shouldnt have to worry bout TDC cause lets be honest it takes more than taking a belt off to turn cams and everything else plus the key keeps the crank pulley and sproket aligned . So when they refer to TDC in the tutorials is this concerning a motor that may have had a belt brake off and timing is out of whack ? I just dont understand why you have to worry about TDC if nothing turns during removal of the belt.

Well am i right ?

 

if the belt breaks, the motor is trash, so no that's not why they say tdc. they say tdc (cyl1 in compression) because that's where the marks line up against the plate and oil pump housing. get a genuine Nissan belt that has lines on it, and that way when you see the dots lined up to the marks on the plate and oil pump, you can take the belt off and put the new one on. as long as the lines align with the dots on the sprockets, that's what counts. cuz once you tension the belt the dots on the sprockets will be a half-tooth off from the ones on the plate, as 1993what'shisname found out (then argued about)

cuz if you are at, say, cyl 3 tdc, the dots on the cams will be completely out of contact with the belt as well as the dot on the crank.. so you will just be guessing give or take a tooth that the belt is on properly. tdc removes all doubt. you can set it just by the crank pulley against the lower belt cover then use an impact to remove the crank bolt so it doesn't turn the crank.

 

couldnt you just get to the belt and put the crank puley nut on and spin the sprockets with the belt still on till they line up with the belt marks ? im not arguing on nething just this is what my pops todl me and just verifying it with people who worked on the specific motor.

 

well the thing is that the belt has a weird number of teeth on it that doesn't divide by the number of teeth on the sprocket, so you will be spinning it ALL DAY to try and get it to line up like it did when you first put it on. if it was like 100 teeth on the belt, 10 on the crank and 20 on the cams, it would line up every 10th turn but on this thing it would take forever to line back up. getting it to tdc where the dots line up against the plate takes no more than 2 turns depending where you start.

 

gotcha ! is there a timing mark on the crank shaft pulley ? I see the plastic arrow on the lower hoousing cover but is it one of the 3 dots on the puley ?

 

once you get the accessory pulley off, and then the t-belt cover, you will see both of the timing gears for the camshafts, as well as the pulley on the crank. there should be a mark on the block to go with the mark on the pulley.

 

HI there! Somehow I completely missed this whole forum when registering. I was wondering why my account wouldn't work with posting new threads, and it must be because I haven't posted here yet. So here goes my problem for you!

The other night I was situated in a small-ish parking lot, ready to take the only available spot at a restaurant that I was about to eat at. I drive around the corner and see the open spot, however there is a big-*** Chrysler 300M sitting a little ways over, idling like it's waiting for something. The second I pull around and up next to it, all of a sudden the guy looks over at me and starts backing up and into the spot. Pissed, of course, due to douche-bag behavior, I back up so I can make another round to see if any more spots had opened. Unfortunately, thanks to a foggy rear window, I didn't see the corner of the nearby building was inching closer to my back wheel.

CRUNCH!

I immediately pull forward, but as I do so I hear this ungodly scraping noise coming from the back of my car. I get out to check out what happened, and I don't immediately see any body damage. "WTF was that noise, then?" I wondered. Looking further down, I suddenly saw what had happened. Apparently, my car missed the wall completely, but was so close, it managed to catch my rear wheel and physically push it forward. Now I have a tire that's in contact with the front of the rear fender, and there is some sort of bar underneath my car that was bent in the process. I think it's what's pulling my wheel forward.

Man, I feel STUPID! Can anyone tell me just what this bar is, and if it's really hard to fix? Also, if there is any lasting damage to other parts of my suspension (aside from my flat tire)?

(sorry for the quality of the pictures; they were taken at night with my cell phone)

 

So basically do u have to use the rotor cap method or i can get all the pulleys, belts, adn timing covers off and than i turn it till the punch marks on the sprockets and alignment marks line up correct.

 

you will want to check the upper strut mount. it's covered by the upper rear seat cushion, and covered by a rubber ...cover (stupid, words).
if the mount is okay, both the rubber part, and the sheet metal it bolts to, head to the junk yard, and pick one up. shouldn't be more than about $10.
it's a trailing arm for the rear suspension.
of course, if the strut mount stuff is messed up, you will need to fix that, as well.
good luck (you seem to have it, already. much rather fix that than body work)

 

to get the crankshaft pulley what type of puller do i get. i just went to autozone and they are a**holes over there. And there a bunch of pullers to choose from.

 

i just use a big 3-jaw puller... i think mine is 8" (lol that's what she said) tho you might want to wrap the pulley in a towel to help not damage it. the jaws can chip the belt guides sometimes.

 

iirc, my puller wasn't big enough (i think it's a 6" ()), so I used some pb blaster, sprayed liberally, screwed the crankshaft bolt most of the way in, and "tapped" everywhere with a hammer.
eventually, it came off.

 

btw what year is your car? i can't remember if i saw you say before..

anyways take the radiator hose and accessory belts and stuff off so you can remove the upper timing belt cover and then turn the engine w/ a ratchet and 27mm socket until the dot on the cam sprocket lines up to the dot on the plate behind it. you might have to clean it up a little to see the dot if you have alot of dust/grease behind your cover. cuz see the crank lines up 2x per rotation of the cam.. so if the cam is lined up the crank HAS to be lined up by default. Then remove the disty cap and use a sharpie to mark the position of the disty rotor so you can set your timing more easily if you ever have to pull the distributor (tho you won't need to pull it to change the timing belt.. it's just a good time to go ahead and mark it)

this is a pic i took.. note the arrows on the belt? they are actually supposed to point outward. the person that timed this engine ignored the lines and just used the dots on the plate and oil pump... which is fine if you have done a few belts, but if it's your first time, you always want the arrow pointing out, and use the lines. the arrow will be at the top, centered between the 2 cams when the belt is first installed.

 

the rod is called a "radius rod" tho some people call it a trailing arm. it's basically the same in terms of its purpose.

how much are you willing to pay for one of those shipped? i have a parts car i can pull one off of.

 

it is a 1993. ok thats what i was figuring becasue even say if i were to turn the crank shaft or sprocket a million times with the old belt still on and than took it off and put a new one on WITH OUT ANYTHING TURNING than it will still be at TDC cause lets face it nothing moved alls i did was take a belt off. I was getting confused with the actuall diagram from Nissan (the quest one in the maintenece sticky) and the one member caraudiohelp had posted. Caraudiohelp had it that you were supposed to make sure before you do anything make sure cylinder 1 is at TDC via disty cap off. But than the maintenence sticky diagrams had take everything off down to the covers and than turn the cranksaft to the timing marks on the sprokets.

 

I actually turned the rear cam, accidentally, by a lot, when I did mine. I freaked out by how easy it turned.
I just lined it back up, and 30k miles later, it is still fine.
but point is, stuff can still move.

 

Ha nice i will be super careful. hey what type of puller do we use to get the crank pulley off ? I checked autozone but wasnt sure what to get.

 

i mean technically if you can get the old belt off and new on one without anything moving, regardless what position the crank/cams are at before you remove the old belt, the you're still in time.. but.. when you have reference dots there for your convenience, why risk it? even after you remove the crank pulley you can put the big bolt back in to turn the crank to tdc#1 as per the cam dots if you aren't doing oil seals, you don't have to remove the sprockets or anything so you can leave the bolt in there until the new belt is on and tensioned.

 

ok thats what i figured now what kind of puller do i use to take pulley off ?

 

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wow im not even gona try to explain how i missed those answers LOL. Cool i will go at it again tommorow thanks guys !

 

How much are you looking to get for one? I'm not sure what shipping costs would be, TBH.

The question is, how will I remove it? Is it as simple as trying to wrench those bolts off, and then will the bushings and the arm come right off?

 

Man, I've heard changing a timing belt is TOUGH work. Is this true?

I've been pondering doing it myself and saving 400 dollars, but then again, I don't want to get into it and become overwhelmed! Any advice from those who have done this already?

My Maxi has 310,XXX miles on it, and I'd really like to keep it going. I've grown rather attached to my 3rd Generation over the years, and would be sad to give her up, even if it's for a same model with less miles.

 

it could easily be a weekend job (got mine knocked out in the better part of a day).
but, like you said, you save $400.

 

normally, yes. since it's been bent so bad, it might need a pry bad. it shouldn't be too bad, once you get one side out.

 

it aint to bad. im into to it i say bout 2 hours right now of acutally working on it. The hardest part at the moment was getting the crank pulley off (8" 3 jar works perfectly) and now gona get eh covers off. I hate to say but now with the crank pulley off i can see some of the belt and it looks almost like a brand new nissan belt. Round tooth BTW as well.

 

used belts don't always look very used. sometimes they do.. i guess it depends on how used they are, what kind of driving (idling/city vs highway) and the climate (humid vs dry). but new-looking belts have on occasion still been very old and used, and snapped despite their young appearance.

 

Do you have to replace the water pump while you're in there? I've seen places that sell timing belt repair kits, and a water pump is included. Also, the last quote I got for replacing a timing belt had them pulling and replacing the water pump along with it. I guess you have to remove it to get to the belt?

 

Not really. They include it as "since you are doing the timing belt, why not do the water pump as well?" type of thing

 

of course, when your car has over 100,000 miles on it, you start to question how much longer it will last....

 

And that's why it's included. The water pump doesn't block the way into changing the timing belt but it is a good thing to change it as well while doing the belt.

 

I posted a couple days ago and got little interest so here we go. I bought a 1994 max with auto trans. My problem is the trans will not shift out of first gear I think its first. It will run about 30-35 but never even try to shift. The speedo will then drop to zero until the trans catches back up then comes up. The other problem is the m lifters tick a little then go away. Any Help.

 

what do you mean "until the trans catches back up then comes up"? you maybe have a bad throttle position sensor. if you are stuck in first gear you should be at about 6000rpm by the time you hit 40mph

 

Hey Caped Cadaver, I sent you a PM! Check it out.

 

would that keep it from shifting.

 

hm well technically that would make it upshift really soon. unless it's like, shorted out the "full throttle" circuit or something which would make it wait till redline to shift. hard to say without a decently narrated video of how the car is behaving. the automatic tranny is one of the more difficult things to diagnose without actually seeing the car in person.

 

Well as of 9:30 tonite the timing belt install is done and a sucess ! Well almost just have to fill it up with radiator fluid tommorow. But other than that the tensioner, belt, water pump, thermostat and accessory belts are all changed and it cranked right up and sounds great ! Now i did buy camshaft seals but everytime i tried to loosen the bolts with the belt still on, i couldnt break them loose. They kept turning and i had to turn them back so the timing didnt get messed up. So i said screw it, cause i didnt wana cause more harm. I ended up buying a $15 Duralast belt and they had all the timing marks on them !

I had bought a Continental Belt for $30 bucks and it didnt have **** plus it was round tooth and i did have square i thought it looked round at first. I did notice oil residue behand the timing covers but i think it was coming from my left valve cover because these is plenty of residue all around both of them. So i bought those too and will be getting dont tommorow as well. So im am happy as hell i manned up and did this myself and i think total working time on this i spend 6 hours or so and next will prolly be cut in half.

So thankyou to CapedCadaver and Benstoked for all your guys help and insight on this. Now hopefully my seals on the water pump and thermostat housing is good !