Please help! 96 2.3 timing belt replaced, running weird

[cstarbard]

Hey guys, I'm in need of some urgent help on this one since its Saturday and I need to drive to work on Monday, lol...

I have a 96 2.3. 150k miles, timing belt looked awful (deep cracks). I went ahead and replaced it. I watched a number of videos and have a Chilton's manual, but something still went awry. Truck runs rough, especially at low rpms, seems like a pretty hard misfire. No unusual noise. No Cel either after starting it and running it for no more than 10 seconds at a time, which I did maybe half a dozen times to see if the poor running condition was consistent.

I replaced the belt and the tensioner. I lined up all my timing marks according to Chilton's manual. Key on crankshaft was at 12 o clock position (at top), the dot on crank sprocket aligned with notch in bracket above it. Camshaft sprocket has a sheet metal disc attached to its backside, which has an indent in it. That indent was lined up with the triangle in the plastic backing piece of the timing cover. The oil pump sprocket (not that its position should matter?) had a disc behind it with an indent, like the camshaft sprocket, which I lined up to the diamond on the plastic backing of the timing cover.

I triple checked all these marks before putting everything back together. The belt was riding good (turned through several revolutions of engine by hand before allowing tensioner to put tension on belt). Belt did not have slack, tightened the bolts for the tensioner, etc. When all was tight, my marks were still good. The only thing I questioned at this time is that it was hard to get the indent on the back plate of the camshaft sprocket to center perfectly over the triangle on the plastic cover. It was off just a hair. But I tried changing its position in the belt teeth one tooth in either direction, and it didn't center the marks perfectly, the skew just changed directions.

Only other thing I replaced today was E C T (small two wire unit threaded into coolant line coming from thermostat) because I noticed it was broken when I was doing the timing belt. I did NOT undo the crankshaft position sensor or touch it at all. It wasn't in the way so I left it well enough alone.

What I find weird is that in every video I watch of someone doing this, it seems like each year 2.3 had different timing mark system. Mine made sense according to Chilton's but not so much to other people's videos, etc.

The other thing I find weird is that when I looked at the original timing belt and the locations of the timing marks as it was, it looked to me like it had jumped time. The crankshaft and camshaft marks were not in sync with each other (cam would be off its mark when crank was lined up or vice versa. like ridiculously far off).

Is it possible that my truck was timed quite badly before, and that the ecu is adjusting to proper time? Am I just a dummy and missing something obvious? What could I have messed up? I don't mind taking it all apart and investigating, but I have no idea what to look for at this point.

Does anyone have pictures of what my 96 2.3 timing marks should look like when lined up? Any ideas as to what I could have done wrong?

Thanks in advance...

 

[cstarbard]

I was able to solve this mystery, hoping the following info will be helpful to someone else. I'm not sure if it applies to years other than '96.

So I could not find a timing mark on the camshaft sprocket or its backing plate- just an indentation in the backing plate. This is NOT the timing mark. I assumed this was the mark since there was literally nothing else there, even when cleaned off. The backing plate for the plastic timing cover has a triangle in it, and in videos I watched, other people had a triangle or bump on their camshaft sprocket/backing plate. Unfortunately I do not.

I lined the indent up with the triangle, and it ran, but pretty bad.

I came across this graphic, which proved to be useful. The tooth count shown on all sprockets was accurate to my engine. The parallel lines drawn outside the sprockets are the edges of the indentations I'm talking about, which are stamped into the backing plate disk that goes behind oil pump and camshaft sprockets. So, I aligned the camshaft sprocket on my engine the way it looks in the graphic (with indentation at like 4 o clock position) then counted the number of teeth between it and the timing mark, as shown in the graphic. That actually worked. Truck is back together and runs great.

I read that other people had top end ticking after starting up with new timing belt. I had this happen but it very quickly went away. I'm not sure what that's about, but don't be afraid if that happens.

 

[rangerenthiusiast]

Sounds like you researched things a whole lot more than I ever have. I’ve always just made marks on the old belt and sprockets, made sure not to move anything when taking off the old belt, counted the number of teeth and applied it to the new belt, then installed it accordingly. Never had an issue. Glad you figured it out.

 

[cstarbard]

Thanks, haha. I didn't want to assume it was timed right before and I'm glad I didn't assume that it was because it actually runs a little bit better now. It ran fine before, but seemed like it had a light misfire. Since changing the belt today and timing it myself, it's run and drove much better. I'm wondering if it might have actually skipped a tooth on the belt because the old belt was pretty loose and the tensioner was pretty beat.