[Shotimes] Boy!! Do I Ache!! or...ATX 60K Done!

[George Fourchy]

OK!!  Did my friend's '95 ATX today.  Just the front of the engine, but MAN!!
...what a job.  I'm glad I don't have to do that very often.  Lots of differences. 
The timing belt was easier than I thought it would be, especially to reassemble ,
after I looked at the drawing and pictures a couple of you sent me.  Thanks SO much
for that.  I would have been lost without that information.  When it came to the
other side of the block, the idler pulley bracket part....what a difference from an
MTX.  I thought I was up against a brick wall....totally different.  The bracket
looks 
like it is an integral part of the front of the engine, and the water pump appears
to 
be impossibly buried.  But I had already downloaded John Gentry's instructions into
my word processer, which was a good thing, since I couldn't find the URL to his
website.  Just now I'm realizing I could have gone to SHOTimes and gotten it again. 
So....anyway, a couple of comments for those contemplating doing their ATXs' 60K
services.

1.  Those coun-founded little wedges that seal up the timing belt chamber...I knew I
would forget to put one or the other of them back, and it turned out to be the one
for the belt tensioner....I already had the damper torqued before I realized I had
forgotten it.  (It was getting dark.)  Fooey!!!  That added another 30 minutes.  One
thing that was nice...Mark's damper doesn't really need to be pulled off the crank. 
It fits exactly right.  If one could get a straight shot at it, without the fender
framework in the way, it could be pulled off just by hand.  With the puller on it, I
could just grab the center screw and pull, and off it came.  I again retapped the
holes so that SAE bolts would fit in, so I didn't have to hassle with metric bolts I
can't find.

2.  John mentioned that the camshaft sprockets and the metal backing plate of the
timing cover at the top needs to be taken off to get the CPS out.  Not necessary. 
As with an MTX, the wires can be slid between the metal backing and the ends of the
fuel rails by using a screwdriver to pry the backing plate forward, away from the
rails, at the same time sliding the harness for the CPS all the way down, so that
the plastic corregated covering for the wires is below the rails, then just sliding
the whole thing backwards, so that the connectors can then go down under the bottom
edge of the backing plate.  Unlike an MTX (I think), the water pump must be removed
before the connectors can get by it.  There isn't enough room to just change the CPS
without taking the pump out.  Either the plate has a deeper base, or the water pump
has a larger shoulder than the MTX arrangement.  But not having to do that
disassembly saved close to an hour overall.  

3.  The (front) idler pulley bracket actually holds two idler pulleys...remember
this engine has a single serpentine belt....that is tensioned with a standard Ford
type spring loaded tensioner adjacent to the power steering pump (which pulley needs
to be removed so that the tensioner can be removed, so that the center part of the
plastic timing cover can be removed.....hassle!).  The front bracket is held on with
6 bolts..... overkill in my opinion....which are somewhat hard to see.  The top one
is partially hidden underneath the front cam sprocket, and was probably much easier
to see with it removed, as in John's case.  I finally found it and got it out....the
water pump and bracket need to be maneuvered together to get things to line
up....sort of risky considering that tiny O ring in the back of the pump.  Also, one
needs to remember the sealing wedge that goes at the bottom of the bracket.  With
those two sealing wedges left out, water can get in there and mess up the CPS and
timing belt during wet weather driving.

4.  John also made the point that one can use a C-clamp to hold the damper still so
that it can be torqued without otherwise having to hold the engine still....very
hard on an ATX.  I tried that on the Lowrider and dinged the damper....it still
works OK, but it has an owie!  ATX dampers are definitely different...they are
stouter at the outer edge, outside of the rubber joint, and the C-clamp method
definitely works.  My cheapo clamps are imported, so I had to use two of them....one
to keep the other one from sliding.  But we got the bolt torqued just
fine.....twice!

We had to wiggle the waterpump around a little bit to get the idler bracket back in
place, and that was the only thing I was worried about...did I dislodge the small O
ring when I did that?  Apparently not, as Mark made it home just fine, and gave me a
call halfway, saying how happy he was with his newly quiet car....now it only has
one loud component up there....the front lower idler pulley, another of which I am
chasing here on the list.   When he was driving up, you could hear his car half a
block away....it sounded like it had a 327 Chevy engine with a gear drive for his
camshaft!

Bring on the ATXs.....but give my back a week to quit aching!!

George