83 2.3L Timing Belt. HELP!!!

[PetesPonies]

well that is why I asked what transmission you have? A manual, you can put it in 1st or reverse, and put the parking brake on as well. YOu then can use a ratchet. But an impact is who we really do it, bam it's off.

 

[Lee_533]

Ok, so new belt is on. But now when I crank it over, it tries to start but floods out. It shoots fuel from the carb. Do I just need to play with the plugs and distributor?

 

[PetesPonies]

Since you have an older engine with a distributor, you need to time that as well. Did you line up the auxiliary shaft as well? That runs the distributor.

 

[Lee_533]

I did. It's running now but still getting too mush fuel. My distributor timing is probably advanced because I timed it a few months ago when the timing bet was stretched. I'm waiting to get my timing light back from my brother to check. But at least the beast is running again.

 

[Lee_533]

Ok another question...should be the last. So when the guy I bought the truck from rebuilt it, I guess he screwed something up. Anyways, right now my timing is at 5 from TDC but its as advanced as the distributor will go. So my question, if I rotate the distributor back, can I just swap the plugs keeping the same firing order and have more adjustment? Like rotate the distributor to where its suppose to be, and rotate the plugs around? As far as I can tell going off of my manual, it's rotated a full plug. #1 cylinder is suppose to be the closest to the front of the truck and right now it sits where 2 should sit. Firing order being 1342 clockwise. Can that work? I'm not worried about it now because its plenty close, but it's a future thing to think about

 

[Mark_88]

I wouldn't do that...

What you might have missed is when lining up the cam, it rotates twice for every crank revolution so you need to ensure that the #1 piston is actually Top Dead Center before attaching the belt...

The best way I know to do that is to pull the number one plug, crank the engine by hand and put your thumb over the plug hole...when you feel air pressure against your thumb then you know you are on the compression stroke...then just ease it up till you can see the top of the piston through the plug hole, then check the timing marks on the cam and crank...then look at the distributor to make sure it is pointing to #1...

When installing the belt it is very easy for the tensioner to "slip" and can actually cause the cam timing to be out by one or more teeth...so be a bit careful with that...and recheck the cam and crank positions after the belt is tight...I use a really light touch on the tensioner bolt to allow the belt to slowly be tensed...snapping it tends to throw things off...

The other thing is that when you are setting the timing, if you have a vacuum advance on the distributor you need to remove that to set base timing...if you don't you are going to be about 10* off correct timing...

The distributor can always be removed and reseated if the timing is off once the belt is installed (checked by the position of the distributor in reference to #1 plug wire).

Hope that was helpful...or even needed...

 

[Lee_533]

I did all of that. Before I put the belt on I lined everything up and made sure the rotor was pointing at cylinder 1. But I didn't think that the distributor was that far off. I thought is was a little weird that my distributor location was different from the manual but I figured it was just showing the generic firing order for all rangers in that year. I know I set everything right because it runs perfectly fine and I drove it around with no issues. I was just seeing that later on if the timing needs to be adjusted whether or not I can just swap the plug wires around. I figured that the rotor just causes the spark for the plug it hits and as long as the firing order is correct it wouldn't matter. But I wasn't sure if anyone has done this. I was going to put the engine at TDC then take the dizzy cap off and rotate the dizzy back where it's suppose to be. Then place the #1 plug wire where the rotor lined up and go from there.

 

[Mark_88]

Ah, so it is running...thought it read that it wasn't running...

So just the rotor is a bit out of whack from what it should be...not a problem...but you can move that by lifting the rotor out and plopping it back a few gear turns...of course...

The only thing that may interfere with is if you wanted to tweak it a bit counter clockwise...then it may run the stator into the block...so reseating the rotor would be needed at that point.