alright, i'm extremely frusterated right now. I am removing the timing equipment on my 3.5 engine and feeling real uneasy about things lining up. I got the primary chain and tensioner off. I loosened the inner cams sprockets with the help of a friend, but we could NOT LOOSEN THE OUTTER ONES. my dad tried to help and it just wasnt happening. So even though advised not to use an air gun, i tried to do it lightly and sure enough something ****ed up. on the 1 3 and 5 cylinder cams you can now rotate the outter cam freely. The inner cam sprocket seems to have come off or something. I dont think i broke anything. I couldnt seem to pop the inner sprocket back into place and now i'm panicking. How do i line everything up again? How do i get this outter sprocket bolt off? Someone help please...thanks.

 

When I removed the bolts off of all sprockets, I used my air tools.

If it moves from the way you had it, you dont need to worry. All you have to do is refer to the fsm on how the intake and exhaust cam are supposed to be lined up and that the markings on the chains and gears line up... same thing on the other side.

So can you rotate the outer cam just like that!? Theres no tension to it? Both the inner and outer should click( or snap into place) when you rotate them. You'll feel some strong tension on it, and then a clicking.

If you do, just put the cam bolt back in, use a 1/2 rachet, and move each cam individually to the TDC position.

I freaked out in this part too but then I figured it out with the help of some orgers and picturing the situation.

 

Why wouldn't you leave the timing chain on and keep the flywheel from rotating when you loosen the cam bolts?

 

Sounds like the dowel pin broke off inside the notch in the sprocket.

 

Thank you. I'm not positive what happened, all I know is that I can turn the outter cam from the sprocket bolt and both sprockets move together but the inner cam does not.
I'm going to try to loosen it some more. I don't know how the sprocket connects to the cam so I don't know how to pop it back in if that's what the problem is.
I'm gonna mess with it some more today after school and hopefully get it off and be able to turn the cams back to tdc like you said. I just hope I'm able to get it RIGHT back and not a link off.
When I was removing my primary timing chain I noticed the left sprocket's line was one link to the left of the colored link, all the other links lined up though.....so...I donno.

 

And yes originally I got the "clicking" and the cams would twist if you turned them too far.
But now its as if the inner cam just isn't connected, it doesn't move as I turn the sprockets.
Maybe ishould just take the chain and sprocket off and worry about the cam later.

 

The intake sprocket just slipped off of the dowel pin. I wouldn't stress it though; you're trying to remove it anyway.


Using an impact gun on the exhaust sprocket bolt is fine. Just hold the cam from the top (or get some to help you with that) with an adjustable wrench and go to town.

 

Alright thanks for the reassurance. I thought maybe it just came off that pin.
I'm gonna give it all I got after school.

 

Alright thanks for the reassurance. I thought maybe it just came off that pin.
I'm gonna give it all I got after school.

 

man... this is rediculous. I've been hammering on this bolt with the impact wrench (good for 150 lbs~) for like 15 minutes and neither one will budge....i'm at a loss....how can nissan expect ONE mechanic to remove this by himself if i can't do it with 2 people nor with an impact wrench. I feel like the only option is to get a stronger impact wrench but something just doesnt seem right about this in the first place.
i tried to get a longer wrench for the cam shaft so i'd have more leverage but i dont see why it would take this much...

 

okay....i'm back with REDICULOUS news. I was thinking about what 95nasta said up there and decided to put the primary chain back on and lock up the flexplate with a c-clamp. Then i put some tension on the chain wiht my hand and used my breaker bar and THERE YOU GO, i got the exhaust cam sprocket bolts loose in 5 seconds of trying......UGH!!!!!!!!!!
i wish i would have done that in the beginning, NO MANUAL says to do that. I guess this is called EXPERIENCE...thats where experience pays off.
so...i got the bolts off, now i'm going to go back out there and take the rest of the stuff off and come back here to ask about how to get the cams in the exact correct position probably.
then, hopefully pull my 3.0 motor this weekend so i can get the 3.0 timing stuff on there early next week.

 

Yeah thats exactly what I did on my buddies engine. It came with a flex plate vs. a flywheel so I wasn't worried about messing it up.
Lining up the 30 timing stuff is real easy. All the marks on the gears and colored links make it cake.

 

well thanks alot! it seems straight forward, the crank lines up with the markings on the inside of the inner timing case, so i'll know thats at TDC. It's the cams i'm a little worried about, but i'll just come back for help whenever i run into that problem in the next couple days.