2.3 lima timing belt slipped off

Farmerrye · Jan 18, 2016

yeah i saw the diagram. look like a 1/2''-1'' washer..... any idea of the size or shape. it seems like if there was a reguarl washer in there it would grind between the pulley and the crank gear.. also are there seals behind the crank gear that could have failed, its pretty oily down there...

thanks

Farmerrye · Jan 18, 2016

RonD said:
Did you look at the diagram in the link?

Belt guide(looks like washer) is easily seen and its position.

No, you will need a cover that fits an '88

yeah i saw the diagram. look like a 1/2''-1'' washer..... any idea of the size or shape. it seems like if there was a reguarl washer in there it would grind between the pulley and the crank gear.. also are there seals behind the crank gear that could have failed, its pretty oily down there...

thanks

Mark_88 · Jan 18, 2016

Mustang 2.3 covers fit the 88 right up to 93 or whenever they stopped putting them in Mustangs. I had a few over the years from Mustangs.

I skimmed over the timing info but saw where you needed to set the aux. If you haven't finished this, there should be a mark on the aux gear that you can point to the mark on the Crankshaft. As tom said it isn't critical, but it throw timing off if you don't put it somewhere near where it should be.

With the distributor cap off, rotate the aux gear so that the rotor points toward the driver side fender. If you marked the distributor somehow before removing the cap it helps putting things back together...I used a visual aid on my distributor to line mine up...the fuel injected may be a completely different animal than a carb setup but the number one wire on the cap is important to note.

tomw · Jan 19, 2016

You can put the wires on the distributor cap any way you wan. For that matter, if the timing is 180 off, flip or flop the wires around 180 so they match. It makes no difference as long as they are in order, and will fire the plug near TDC on compression.
Some caps are marked with a 1 .. then follow with 3-4-2.

The lower belt retainer is sort of like a flat disk that has a hole in it just big enough to go over the front end of the crankshaft. I think it is not perfectly flat, but has a slight dish to 'nudge' the belt back in place w/o cutting the belt on the edge.
The belt should NOT want to walk off the sprockets very much. A little, I can accept, but if it walks in just a few seconds of startup... might have an alignment problem somewhere.
I would think any boneyard that had 2.3's would have a front cover. I haven't looked at newer, but the original was stamped sheet metal. Later were plastic, and later yet, ??
The cam pointer went with the dodo and it became a 'tic' mark on the front of the block or head, pics on this site somewhere. Waaaay back where you can't see it readily w/o a flashlight and stooping to look, unless you are of radiator cap height.
There is a seal on the front of the lower 'front cover' around the crankshaft. If it leaks, you should be able to see the oil trail looking from below. Oil is not a friend of timing belts, causing palsy, and weakness of chemical bonds until it has teeth falling out.
t

Farmerrye · Feb 3, 2016

tomw said:
You're pretty much on. There is a notch in the pulley on the crankshaft that should align with the timing marks on the cam belt cover, but won't if you don't have one... duh.
You might be able to remove the pulley bolt to see the keyway machined into the crankshaft nose, then rotate to put it at 12:00.
To know when #1 is at TDC, firing, look at the distribulator pointer... it should be in the #1 ballpark area. To know, follow the plug wire over the top of the cam cover down to the plug. It will be at #4 or at #1... if at #4, rotate the crankshaft 360 degrees and it should be pointing at #1.
Remember, the tensioner PIVOT has a hex head... and it is a bolt ... and it will be tight until loosened. Loosen it and then pry on the 'top' side of the pulley to push it away from the back(outer) side of the timing belt, then tighten the adjustment bolt while the tensioner is retracted. You can use a 'tire iron' without causing damage to anything if you are careful, and it will give you leverage enough to retract the tensioner.
A belt cover makes re-setting the timing easier. There is a jumper hanging out of the wire loom from the drivers side inner fender leading to the engine. It is called the SPOUT jumper, and must be removed to set base timing to 10BTDC. Done with the engine warmed up at normal idle. Once @ 10, kill the engine, tighten the distributor hold-down bolt, and start the engine to re-check it is still timed properly. Kill it again, then replace the jumper.
The engine will likely start if the distributor rotor is in the general ballpark of #1 when you set things up. If you have not loosened the distributor, the ignition timing should be pretty much on as it was before, the only difference being the 'stretch' of the belt(which is not supposed to stretch...)
tom

what the heck is the deal with the outer cover? I have a new inner cover. Will the cover from a later model work? it looks like it will i just dont want to have to buy one from the junkyard that is wrong.
Are there seals behind the cover?

i did manage to measure the belt guide so i can replace it with a washer since i couldnt get any of the guides off the trucks at the junk yard.
thanks

Farmerrye · Feb 10, 2016

Hey so I couldn't find a the belt guide for the crank gear so I made one out of an old washer and welded it to the pulley and ground it clean and flush. I line all the sprockets up. I set the aux sprocket so that the contact is under number one plug, this makes the tick mark on the sprocket to be either around 2 or 10 o clock.

I put it all back together and it will crank but won't fire.

Any suggestions?? The engine smells like gas... Could the aux sprocket be off slightly....??

Thanks

tomw said:
You can put the wires on the distributor cap any way you wan. For that matter, if the timing is 180 off, flip or flop the wires around 180 so they match. It makes no difference as long as they are in order, and will fire the plug near TDC on compression.
Some caps are marked with a 1 .. then follow with 3-4-2.

The lower belt retainer is sort of like a flat disk that has a hole in it just big enough to go over the front end of the crankshaft. I think it is not perfectly flat, but has a slight dish to 'nudge' the belt back in place w/o cutting the belt on the edge.
The belt should NOT want to walk off the sprockets very much. A little, I can accept, but if it walks in just a few seconds of startup... might have an alignment problem somewhere.
I would think any boneyard that had 2.3's would have a front cover. I haven't looked at newer, but the original was stamped sheet metal. Later were plastic, and later yet, ??
The cam pointer went with the dodo and it became a 'tic' mark on the front of the block or head, pics on this site somewhere. Waaaay back where you can't see it readily w/o a flashlight and stooping to look, unless you are of radiator cap height.
There is a seal on the front of the lower 'front cover' around the crankshaft. If it leaks, you should be able to see the oil trail looking from below. Oil is not a friend of timing belts, causing palsy, and weakness of chemical bonds until it has teeth falling out.
t

tomw · Feb 10, 2016

I would bring the crankshaft to TDC. Look at the mark on the camshaft sprocket and determine if it is lined up with the pointer. If not, rotate the crankshaft 360(one turn) and re-check the cam pointer. Once aligned, remove the distributor cap and see where the rotor is pointing. You want the rotor to point near or at the #1 plug wire with the two previous marks as noted. You can move the plug wires so #1 in the cap is where the rotor is, or move the distributor.
I paid no attention to marks on the aux sprocket as that is not needed for a distributor system.
tom

Farmerrye · Feb 10, 2016

tomw said:
I would bring the crankshaft to TDC. Look at the mark on the camshaft sprocket and determine if it is lined up with the pointer. If not, rotate the crankshaft 360(one turn) and re-check the cam pointer. Once aligned, remove the distributor cap and see where the rotor is pointing. You want the rotor to point near or at the #1 plug wire with the two previous marks as noted. You can move the plug wires so #1 in the cap is where the rotor is, or move the distributor.
I paid no attention to marks on the aux sprocket as that is not needed for a distributor system.
tom

I'm confident the cam and crank are where they need to be. When it turns over it sounds like it wants to start but has no spark. I'll turn the motor over to tdc on the crank and see where the distributor is at. I just want to clarify, with the engine at tdc I'll put the number one wire on top of wherever the distributor rotor then the next wire in the counter clock wise sequence will be number three then four then two correct? Does the distributor spin clock wise or counter with normal engine rotation? Thanks

Farmerrye · Feb 10, 2016

tomw said:
I would bring the crankshaft to TDC. Look at the mark on the camshaft sprocket and determine if it is lined up with the pointer. If not, rotate the crankshaft 360(one turn) and re-check the cam pointer. Once aligned, remove the distributor cap and see where the rotor is pointing. You want the rotor to point near or at the #1 plug wire with the two previous marks as noted. You can move the plug wires so #1 in the cap is where the rotor is, or move the distributor.
I paid no attention to marks on the aux sprocket as that is not needed for a distributor system.
tom

so i verified that when the marks on the sprockets are lined up that the distrubutor is pointing under number one, tried to fire it up and nohting still cranking.. i moved everything over 90 degrees and still nothing... i pulled the #1 spark plug and it looks fine.. the wires a relatively new.... i hear the fuel pump go on....and there is pressure in the fuel rail.... not sure where to turn now...

Mark_88 · Feb 10, 2016

Try lining up your cam and crank marks and remove the distributor cap to see if the rotor is pointing at or near (before) the #1 wire on the cap. If not...adjust that...just loosen the bolt that holds the distributor down and you can rotate it back and forth.

Once that is done if it still doesn't fire, spray some starter fluid in the Throttle Body and crank again...if it fires...you have a fuel issue that may be fixed by spraying the starter fluid if the engine continues to run after that...worked on my Tempo...

Farmerrye · Feb 11, 2016

Mark_88 said:
Try lining up your cam and crank marks and remove the distributor cap to see if the rotor is pointing at or near (before) the #1 wire on the cap. If not...adjust that...just loosen the bolt that holds the distributor down and you can rotate it back and forth.

Once that is done if it still doesn't fire, spray some starter fluid in the Throttle Body and crank again...if it fires...you have a fuel issue that may be fixed by spraying the starter fluid if the engine continues to run after that...worked on my Tempo...

For the third or fourth time I verified the rotor position relative to the number one wire and still nothing. Moved every wire over two plugs and still nothing. Gunna try starter fluid later.

About six months ago my truck died and wouldn't start. Turned out it there was a loose ground wire... It was fixed but who knows... My fuel pump relay and other electrical is really nasty....

scotts90ranger · Feb 11, 2016

You don't have to worry about the auxiliary pulley if you have the rotor pointed correctly on the cap, there are marks to line that pulley up, but you have to have them lined up and the distributor pointed right when you put the distributor in... I wouldn't worry about it

The guides are the crank dampener and the washer on the back side against the crankshaft behind the timing pulley.

Edit: I just realized there were 3 pages... my reply was for the end of the first page... oops

Mark_88 · Feb 12, 2016

I may have confused things a bit...I had a 2.0 and it was not necessarily the same as a 2.3...

The aux gear on a 2.0 actually has a diamond pointer...all I was saying was it worked (started) every time first time when that was pointed to the diamond on the crank because that indicated the rotor was pointing to the number one plug...

The OP has already confirmed that so it was my lack of knowing what has been done that I was trying to fill in...

Sorry...carry on...I will sit back and shut up...

Farmerrye · Feb 13, 2016

Mark_88 said:
I may have confused things a bit...I had a 2.0 and it was not necessarily the same as a 2.3...

The aux gear on a 2.0 actually has a diamond pointer...all I was saying was it worked (started) every time first time when that was pointed to the diamond on the crank because that indicated the rotor was pointing to the number one plug...

The OP has already confirmed that so it was my lack of knowing what has been done that I was trying to fill in...

Sorry...carry on...I will sit back and shut up...

starter fluid didnt do anything.......the plugs are wet

Shoddy Cologne · Feb 13, 2016

2.3s do have a diamond on the crank pulley iirc.

Sent from my LGL16C using Tapatalk

2.3 lima timing belt slipped off

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