Timing belt?

[Cherrybomb]

Ok guys bad news i totaled my 89 on friday. Broke the steering wheel with my face. good news is im alive and my face just isnt as pretty as before and if i wasnt wearing my seatbelt i probably wouldnt be heretyping this write now. So the doc at the hospital told me not to work at all this week. But im working on my 90 trying to get it running so i have something to drive to work. so my guestion to you is who here has changed there timing belt. Im going to try and pull the harmonic balancer tomorrow so i can get the belt off. Now the haynes book says i need a special tool to realign the timing sensor? cant i just put it back on. It will be in the same spot wont it? If i dont need to use the tool to get it running then i wont do it. Has anyone done this without using the tool? thanks for any info guys and R.I.P 89

 

[skippy]

can't help w/timing belt,can help w/the seat belt.wear it if you want to have more birthdays in your future.you are lucky,very lucky.

 

[RobbieD]

I've changed it on my '94, and don't recall any hassle with the timing sensor. In fact, if I remember right I took the sensor pickup off and put it back on with no problems. Sorry to hear about your wreck; hope you heal up quickly.

 

[skippy]

oops,my bad,misread your post.you were wearing your belt,glad you are ok and i am sorry about the seat belt lecture.

 

[Sevensecondsuv]

You don't have to remove the harmonic damper or the "timing sensor" (crankshaft position sensor). Just take off the fan, the water pump pulley, the timing belt cover, and the crankshaft pulley. You'll have to do muscle the belt off the crank sprocket, but I did it without too much trouble. Just make sure you get the timing set correctly when you reassemble.

 

[Big Red Ranger]

little tricky but can do it with out the tool

 

[Cherrybomb]

No offense taken Skippy i understand. Thanks for the info guys ill let you know what happens and ill post some pics of the 89.

 

[Dave R]

No special tool needed, just don't bash the sensor accidentally.

I'm not sure why it's such a big deal to remove the crank hub. It's generally far easier to do that than try to muscle the belt out from behind the retainer, without damaging the retainer or the timing sensor.

 

[Cherrybomb]

If you dont have a puller the harmonic balancer will be a pain to get off but its easier to spend the money and have the puller which takes it off in a min. and pullers always come in handy for other stuff too. the balncers on these motors are really small compared to my 360. I just thought it was funny lookin. Im just not used to all the smaller stuff.

 

[Cherrybomb]

I got the timming belt back on and runnig yesterday at first the motor had some bad valve tap for about 2mins but then went away completely. I think the truck sat for awhile and just didnt have any oil up top. Afterwards i changed the oil and shes running like a champ sounds very smooth and shifts a lot nicer then my 89. Now i got to straighten out the back bumper and the kid that had it cut big holes in the door panels for speakers so im going to take my 89 blue panles and paint them red so the interior will look a lot better. im parting out the 89 and already have someone that wants the trans and computer for 200 bucks which will be nice to get some money out of it. Im still not use to this power steering though.

 

[RobbieD]

Glad to hear that you got 'r done. Thanks for letting us know it went well.