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How to change your timing belt!


5523Pathfinder
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Definitely a NEWBIE!!!

 

Help.... I have a 1997 XE 4WD! 3.3! I've replaced the belt as stated. did not notice the mark on the crank sprocket (found this thread after complete)! All is reassembled! Something is Wrong! Idle is extremly high! When pressing accelerator or under strain engine wants to die. Did not reset distributer! Is there a way to reset the distributer/timing etc without disassembly? If not so be it! ( Please provide proper instruction for setting distributer to TDC or link to another reference).

 

Thanks

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  • 1 month later...

Ok, so I have gotten a bunch of PM's and questions about TDC and aligning the cams. I did another timing belt today on a 98 and I figured I would post a few things to help.

 

1203972902.jpg

This pic is of the crank sprocket. You can see that I have not removed the lower timing cover yet. The crankshaft needs to be rotated clockwise to bring the keyway up to about the 11:00 position.

 

1203972959.jpg

Here you can see that the right cam sprocket is not in the correct position. I marked the dimples with white paint to show that they need to be aligned.

 

1203972881.jpg

Here I have turned the crankshaft to align the marks where they need to be. I have not taken off the timing belt yet!

 

1203972480.jpg

This is where the crankshaft should be after aligning the marks. This puts you at TDC. If you where 180 degrees out, the cam marks would not line up like in the prevous photo.

 

Now, lets say you need to change a leaking cam seal. You went to remove the right cam sprocket and it moved. It would look something like this...

1203972459.jpg

 

No big deal. Continue removing parts and replace the seal. When you put it back together, rotate the cam clockwise and realign the marks. Hopefully this helps the people who need to see it before they take it apart.

 

th_SV_A0018.jpg

Edited by 5523Pathfinder
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Ok, thanks to this thread I am going to change the timing belt and other associated parts on my 1998 Pathfinder this Sunday.

The truck has about 107K miles on it.

Today I bought the timing belt, cam seals, crank seal, water pump, thermostat, radiator hoses and bypass hose, timing belt tensioner and spring, spark plugs, antifreeze, oil and oil filter. All for about $450. I have RTV sealant and antisieze for the plugs.

I have 4mm-19mm sockets and the 27mm too.

I have a torque wrench, breaker bar, and air compressor with air-hammer lined-up to use.

 

I just wanted to make sure I'm not missing anything.

About what size socket will I need to press the seals in?

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks for your help...especially this thread!

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You can tap the seals in with, I think, a 34 or 36mm socket. What has also worked is fitting them in with a little assembly lube, then tapping them in lightly with a extension and hammer. Just tap them in until they are flush with the head. Dont push them as far back as they will go. They will end up leaking again. It sounds like you have just about everything. Remember you need a puller for the crank pulley after you remove the bolt.

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Well, the Pathfinder is up and running again, but I must say it was a much tougher job than expected. My dad come over to help me, he is a retired aircraft technician so he is better at this stuff than me.

Anyway, we replaced everything and most of it looked pretty good for 117k miles, except one cam shaft seal was slightly leaking. I had planned on changing those anyway.

We worked 9 hours on Sunday and didn't get everything back together. So I called into work Monday and we finished the car around 4:00. When we started the car it sounded really rough, like a loud rattling similar to having a marble in the engine. So, I called my brother-in-law who is a toyota technician. He came over and said that we didn't tighten one of our cam shaft bolts or possibly the crank shaft bolt tight enough and it was wobbling around. So we had to take everything off to get back into the timing belt. He was right, so we tightened the loose cam shaft again and reassembled. We finally finished around 11:00 last night, but the car runs great now. Luckily no damage was caused by my oversight of the cam shaft bolt! That could have been an expensive mistake.

I think this might be my last timing belt change.

Thanks again for all the help on this site.

Brian.

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  • 3 months later...

I have a 94 SE V6 4x4 and I am in the process of replacing my water hose hidden behind the rear tb cover. So far I have gotten past the cam sprockets after marking them up at TDC and transferring the marks to the new timing belt. I am going to replace the hose, cam oil seals, timing belt and thermostat while I'm in this far. I do have some concern though and I am in need of advice on how I should proceed.

 

While I did mark the belt at TDC at the cam sprockets, I didn't at the crank sprocket. Further more I rotated the crank shaft without the cams following in the process of trying to losen the cam bolts. Yeah, don't ask why, but unfortunately I did it and need to find how to remedy this problem before I go any further.

 

It wasn't a full revolution, just a few degrees, but the combination of the teeth not being marked at TDC and the shaft not being at TDC position puts me at a stand still.

 

I'm going to proceed to replace the seals and hose while I'm at this ponit, the point of no return, but need help in what I should do next to get the crank properly aligned with my cams. Again, it's not far off at all. The crank key is at 11 oclock, but I'm not going to leave this to chance.

 

I appreciate any and all help.

Edited by ItsTheBone
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Look to see if the dimple is on the crank sproket itself. You can make a mark there. Now this is why I like to use a factory belt. Use the white lines on the belt to align the marks. You can see how I did it in the later steps. You can move the crank a little, just dont force it.

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  • 3 months later...

Ok, so I changed the timing belt on my 2000 Quest I just bought. It has a 3.3l in it. The timing belt replacement is 105,000 miles. Well, this is why you replace them at the interval. I pulled this belt off and the engine was at 138,000 miles. Changed it just in time...

 

1229374292.jpg

1229374261.jpg

 

That thing was not going to last much longer!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

My water pump was leaking through the seep hole, so while I was replacing it I decided I might as well do the timing belt too, especially since the belt had about 125,000 miles on it. :)

 

The total cost for the timing belt, tensioner pulley, and new water pump was only $65 with shipping from Parts Dinosaur. The thermostat was $13 at my local Advance. The whole job took about 16 hours, which is a bit long, but I'm still learning how to do this stuff.

 

I wanted to do my cam seals too, but with a 10" socket wrench I just couldn't get enough torque to loosen the sprocket bolts. (The crank pulley bolt was pretty easy to get loose with an 18" breaker bar. Unfortunately, the breaker is 1/2"-drive and won't fit my smaller sockets.)

 

Thanks for the excellent tutorial. I wouldn't have been able to do the job without this great thread.

 

Have a look at my shiny new water pump!

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  • 6 months later...
Ok, pretty much everthing from here is reassembly. Make sure to check your hoses and belts. If anything is out of order, fix or replace it now! This job isnt that difficult if you have some mechanical skill. It will always be a good idea to have some kind of repair manual near to reference as needed.

 

I hope this helps and I am glad I could do it. If there is anything that need clarification, let me know. If someone wants a different picture of something, let me know!

hi i know this sounds like a deadbut am really having problems tring to set the timing, am sure there is something am not doing right, have gone trough all the process but it still won't start

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Ok, so a lot of people are wanting to do thier own timing belt. This job can be time consuming and picky. You will need time, tools and patience. The vehicle I used was a 99 QX4. This engine is a 3.3L, but its pretty much all the same from 96-99. I will try and post everthing you may need, if I forget anthing let me know. Ok,

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!!!

 

First, gather your tools. You will need metric sizes from 8mm to 19mm in sockets, and wrenches to be on the safe side. Your crank pulley bolt is a 27mm(1 1/16ths i think (Yes-B)). You will also need...

 

Breaker bar (longer the better)

Pliers (mulitple)

Screwdrivers (flat and phillips)

Metric Hex wrenches or sockets(5MM)

Scrapers

Extensions(3 and 6in)

Puller (there is a pic of what it looks like)

Other toohi i know this sounds like a deadbut am really having problems tring to set the timing, am sure there is something am not doing right, have gone trough all the process but it still won't start ls may be listed with the photos

 

Next step is getting started. You will need to drain your coolant from underneath. Remove the lower skid plate and find the drain valve. WD21's will be on the left side of the radiator, R50's will be on the bottom right, you will need to remove the skid support brace to access it. While you are under there, remove the lower fan shroud and disconnect the transmission cooler lines if you are a A/T.

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hi i know this sounds like a deadbut am really having problems tring to set the timing, am sure there is something am not doing right, have gone trough all the process but it still won't start

Im assuming it ran before you changed the belt? Sounds like you missed something. You may want to remove the covers and check the belt timing marks to see if they are right. If they are too far off, you may have damged something. Did you do anything else besides change the belt? You may want to start a thread in the Garage section for more help.

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Ok, I'm back to work on my Pathfinder after a bit of a break and have gotten timing belt on and most everything replaced.

 

My dilema is getting the crank shaft bolt torqued to the 120-132 ft lb spec. I can probably get near 50 before the cams and crank rotate. Any advice on getting the correct amount of torque?

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insert screwdriver into one of the holes

That doesn't seem to work. I've tried to do that, but the torque presses the screwdriver into the back cover and and bends it. Also isn't that putting all the torque directly onto your belt?

 

I've heard of taking the oil pan off to put a wood handle in there to jam it up, but the oil pan is behind all he suspension! Can you stop the crank thru the starter?

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You can pull the starter and used a larger screwdriver to hold the flywheel/flexplate. If you have and manual, put it in gear, block the wheels and try torquing as needed. You could also get a strap wrench(availible at most tool suppliers) and a buddy and hold the crank. The best way is air obviously, but if you dont have it, get creative. Just be careful.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi,

Here’s what I did, or didn’t do correctly. I remove the crank pulley, set the cam timing marks, removed the belt, then remembered that I did not set the crank to TDC before removing the crank pulley. Oh, and wouldn’t you know it, the dampener separated from the pulley when I pulled it off, meaning it came apart into 2 pieces. Oh well, that’s what you get when you use the wrong puller. So I google Nissan dampeners and decide to sent it to a rebuilder in Oregon for $115 bucks, I figure times are tough and this guy works out of his garage rebuilding classic and hard to find dampeners, so I took a chance on giving this guy my money. I get my pulley back and it looks sweet, looks perfect, looks like it should hold up for the life of the vehicle.

 

So when it was being fixed I replace the seals, h20 pump, etc. A few weeks go by and now I have time to put it back on. I set the timing to zero. I remove it. The cam marks are lined up, the crank timing mark is at around 5’oclock the crank keyway is at 11’oclock. I even pulled spark plug #1 to take a peek in the cylinder and piston appears to be all the way up. When I put the belt on I’m 1 tooth off on the crank timing mark, I stretch the belt...no go. 40 teeth from cam mark to cam mark, 44 from drivers side cam mark to crank mark.

 

So I’m thinking (which usually get’s me in trouble):

1. Should I turn the timing gears clockwise one tooth to match the Timing Belt marks?

2. Put the belt on, pull plug no.1, stuff it with a rolled up piece of cardboard , spin the crank till it pops to confirm TDC , then reset all the timing marks and reinstall the belt? (huh?)

3. Put the belt on and run it with 44 tooth count between the cam and crank?

4. Try to turn the crank one tooth to 43?

 

I’m stuck between option 1 & 3.

 

BTW, I can delete this thread if it doesn't belong here.

 

Thanks!

 

-----------------------------

 

Cheers,

 

Joe V

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Joe, I'm about to do this for the first time so only have second hand info.

 

What I will say is that there are several very detailed threads about this already so searching is a good bet. That doesn't mean no one will chime in but it can't hurt to go look either, right??

 

Let me know if you have trouble finding the threads and I'll dig them up... :beer:

 

B

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  • 4 weeks later...

I thought I'd share some things I learned on my timing belt adventure. I'll add more as I finish up...

 

1) I decided to remove the spark plugs (and replace them at the same time) and always thought they should be tight, not barely snug... :blink:

2) If you are replacing your seals, take a suitable tool (punch, drift pin, etc) and tap the old seals in a little first (.02-.05") just to break them lose. It will make pulling them out 10X easier. The first one took me 15 minutes to figure out, the second took 2 minutes...

3) A standard 36mm socket is what I had and used for the cam seals, it worked perfect... I made a plastic sleeve for the front crank seal install and tapped it in with an extension, walking around it. Be careful when tapping the seals in, it takes very little force so don't drive them in too far! If you do, odds are you will ruin it getting it out.

4) The 27mm socket with a breaker bar resting on the steering box/bumper bracket mount, removing the coil wire and bumping the starter for 1/2 of a second worked beautifully to loosen the crank bolt.

5) Make sure you have everything you need first. I thought I did, but wound up going to get hose clamps, new radiator hoses, bolts for the puller and a new fan clutch as an afterthought just so everything is new...

6) Expect to spend just as much time cleaning, scraping, caulking and setting the timing belt tension (took me 4 tries before I was satisfied) as you do on the disassembly/reassembly.

 

I haven't figured out how to torque the crank bolt back to the 96ft/lbs recommended though. I have an electric impact gun but it is WAY too long to fit in there. I just bought a compressor, so I may have to go to HF and buy an air gun just for this job... :shrug:

 

Like I said, I'll chime in with anything else I remember or run across.

 

B

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  • 3 months later...

Ok, I'm back to work on my Pathfinder after a bit of a break and have gotten timing belt on and most everything replaced.

 

My dilema is getting the crank shaft bolt torqued to the 120-132 ft lb spec. I can probably get near 50 before the cams and crank rotate. Any advice on getting the correct amount of torque?

 

I used one of the old belt (longest) to hold crank pulley in place, by wrapping it around pulley, makes it a one person job. Caution the belt most likely will be damaged in some way, so make sure you discard it.

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Ok, I'm back to work on my Pathfinder after a bit of a break and have gotten timing belt on and most everything replaced.

 

My dilema is getting the crank shaft bolt torqued to the 120-132 ft lb spec. I can probably get near 50 before the cams and crank rotate. Any advice on getting the correct amount of torque?

 

 

loctite and a 1/2inch impact.

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  • 4 weeks later...

so, i'm going to be tackling this job this weekend...

 

my questions are about parts:

 

are the off the shelf parts from autozone/ checkers/ etc. good enough, or is it worth it to wait a bit and order nissan factory parts?

 

mainly, i'm worried about tensioner and water pump. is there an marked difference between factory water pump and off the shelf stuff?

 

thoughts? opinions?

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