[Shotimes] Rookie Timing Belt Question

[bjshov8@comcast.net]

There is a mark on the front of the lower gear and a mark on the front of the oil pump that you line up.  If it isn't obvious where the marks are then you can hold up the lower front cover and the harmonic balancer and see where the keyway in the crank should be positioned, then turn the crank to this position and maybe the marks will be more obvious.

For the MTX (the ATX may be slightly different)- you put the belt on and line everything up, let the spring in the tensioner push the pulley against the belt, then tighten the bolt.  Then you put on the front cover and rotate the engine 2 revolutions.  There is a door in the front cover that you can open, then loosen the bolt holding the tension, then tighten it back.  The exact procedure in the manual is slightly more than this, in that I think your rotations are not exactly 2 revolutions.  If somebody doesn't chime in before tonight then I will look it up in my manual when I get home.


> Ok, got a few hours to spend on putting the SHO back
> together and ran into a problem.  When lining up the
> timing belt with the cams, the lines on the belt match
> the notches on the pulleys, how do I know where to
> line up the line with the crank?  I guess I could
> reinstall the PS and Alt belt pulley to line it up,
> but I figured you guys have a method without having to
> reinstall the lower timing belt cover and pulley.  The
> second problem I have is with the timing belt
> tensioner.  I loosened the nut and used a 5 mm hex to
> relieve the tension to remove the belt but then forgot
> to tighten the nut back down.  Therefore the tentioner
> is no longer under tension.  I did not see it spin
> down, but is it safe to say that if I rotate it clock
> wise until tension is built back up and tighten the
> bolt I will be ok, or is the tentioner hosed?