[Shotimes] Timing Belt/Timing chain

[George Fourchy]

On Wed, 16 Apr 2003 17:34:13 EDT, SHOandTALE@aol.com wrote:

>I'm about to have part of the 60k done on my 94atx.   The guy who's gonna do 
>the work tells me that the 3.2 has both a timing chain and a timing belt.   
>My question to the list is, is this true?   If so, does the chain need to be 
>replaced?   I don't recall anybody here ever talking about a timing chain.

The rubber belt is in the front of the engine, next to the right front wheel.  That
is what wears, and is changed every 60 or 100 thousand miles, depending on whether
it is a manual or automatic shifted car.  The chains are in the back of the engine,
in front of you when you are driving it, and just connect the two cams in each head
together.  They usually don't need any attention.  The belt is what does the hard
work, turning the two sprockets, one at the top of each head, and connect them to
the crankshaft.

It's easy to do once you are familiar with the workings and idiosyncracies, but
there are a couple of places during the assembly that serious errors can be made.  
It isn't something that someone who has no idea what is in there should try.

It really sounds like you'd better quiz this guy thoroughly to see if he really
knows what he is doing.  We never mess with the metal chains when we do the 60K
service.  They're not even mentioned in passing.  The fact that he is bringing them
up either means he doesn't know whether they are involved in the service, or he is
just setting you up for a bigger labor charge.

George