Timing Belt Done!

lincmercguy · **Joined:** Thu Oct 24, 2013 11:45 pm **Posts:** 13

I haven't posted in a while. I suppose that's good because I haven't had a lot of problems with my '06 we bought late last year. When we bought the Jeep, it had 128k miles. Only 132k now. I had zero luck determining whether the timing belt had been replaced. I couldn't determine whether the belt had 28k miles of wear or 128k miles of wear. I decided to replace the belt, tensioner, and idlers. At 200k, I'll do the water pump and thermostat with the next timing belt service. I ordered the parts from ID parts. I also ordered Senco hoses as the factory ones were pretty spongy. I bought a Sealy kit off of UK Ebay. I'm trying to make sure the car is reliable enough for us to use for trips. We've been taking my '03 diesel Ram up until now since I hated driving my wife's Focus.

The belt was pretty easy in all honesty. I had waited until the holiday weekend in case it took a long time, but I got it done in an afternoon. I could of had it done in four hours if I wasn't being lazy. I did quite a few Escort/Focus belts in my former life as a Lincoln/Mercury mechanic. This was my first time doing one on a RWD/4WD car. Those were pretty easy too, all things considered. A few observations though:

1. Why does every tutorial have you remove the front bumper, radiator, and inter-cooler? I was able to remove the grille, upper radiator support, and then remove the fan and shroud at the same time. I could see how having all of the other stuff out of the way would be convenient, but I had plenty of room to work.

2. Do the cam locking pins really keep the cams centered enough for when you're removing the sprockets? It seems like they're just detents in the cams unlike more definitive slots/etc other manufacturers use (Time a 4.0L Ford SOHC, that's an adventure).

3. The crank locking pin seems to be a joke. It did not lock the crank. Is there an alternative method to ensuring the crank is in the correct position? I made sure to make a bunch of marks on everything to ensure timing.

4. I've read a bunch of arguments about secondary rail pump timing. Just to be sure, I marked it and made sure it was timed. I did notice that it takes three crank revolutions to have the secondary pump end up at the same position. I guess it can't hurt to time it. I also kept the water pump at the same position. I know it doesn't make a bit of difference, but it can't hurt to put things together back the way I found them.

5. Either VM or Chrysler was smart to use pulleys for the p/s and crank that bolt on. It sure made this job easier leaving the pullers in the tool box.

Thanks to all of those who have posted information in the past about this. I was able to find some very informative old posts on the subject to give me some confidence.

geordi · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2014 1:28 pm

Your first misconception about the job is calling them "locking pins" when they are just LOCATING pins. This is especially true for the crank, but the camshafts DO go into a deep and precisely milled hole in the cams. However, that doesn't mean there isn't some wiggle room to perfectly center the cams.

You CANNOT use the pins to hold the camshafts when you get to the point of removing the cam nuts. You MUST use a counter-hold such as the Universal Sprocket Buster (sold at IDparts) or similar, and hold against your own force while breaking the nuts. They have 80 lb-ft of torque that the pins were never meant to handle. Leave them in however, so that the camshafts stay in the proper place when the pulleys are removed. They are not keyed.

There is a timing divot on the fuel pump pulley, it is hard to see sometimes (its on the angled shoulder of the cog, against the inner cover) and the matching mark is just out of sight below the 8mm bolt at the 8 o'clock position. The pump is a 3-lobed pump, so yes, it comes into timing alignment with both cams every 6th rotation, or every 3rd for 180-out on the cams. This is correct, and still allows a pump lobe to be injecting fuel at the precise moment that an injector opens on a 4-cylinder engine.

The tutorials have the entire front coming off the Jeep b/c of the DUMB design of the shroud and fan. I manage to remove that without removing ANYTHING else before it, and everyone gets a free fan shroud mod that eliminates the dumb design for good - saw through the plastic at the mold lines just below the bolt tabs. Throw the bottom away. It is too far from the fan to be an effective air duct anyway (it would need to be within 1/4 inch) and the top gets notched where the high pressure AC port and AC line bend, so that the AC line isn't EVER flexed or moved.

Glad you got it done, good luck with it in the future! :JEEPIN:

lincmercguy · **Joined:** Thu Oct 24, 2013 11:45 pm **Posts:** 13

Is that wiggle room enough to affect timing when removing the sprockets? I've read a ton of warnings about using a sprocket holder, and agree completely.

I can work with the fan-shroud as-is, so I just left it alone.

geordi · **Posted:** Sat Aug 30, 2014 6:23 pm

The wiggle room is less than a tooth wide, but I like to have things perfectly positioned so that the pins can thread in all the way to the shoulders easily and just by fingers after rotating the engine twice by hand. That tells me that the cams are perfectly centered and the timing should be bang-on.

If they are a little bound, that shouldn't make much of a difference, the overall tolerance on the clearance is more than 1.5 teeth, so that the cams could be one full tooth out and it would still run... But when the belt wears in and the timing slowly shifts... You won't have the same safety margin. Contact is possible. As I'm sure you well know, better to have it timed perfectly at the start.

Timing Belt Done!

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