sewebster

It didn't work before though. The cam is new. I think this aftermarket cam has the gear casting "wrong"... just offset by half a tooth or whatever from the oem one. I checked the timing belt a million times, like I do every time I install it. You can prevent installing it wrong by counting the teeth between the marks. It's fairly foolproof I think and I counted multiple times.

Any tips on the best way to check out the linkage? The FSM doesn't seem to say anything, or else I'm looking at the wrong place. Should I be under the truck, or taking apart the boot inside? Thanks.

If the lifter loses the oil then it will feel totally soft when you push down on top. It should feel hard, like it doesn't move. It's pretty obvious when they've lost all the oil. My (1991) FSM doesn't seem to say to replace the washers (or bolts) anywhere. It does tell you how long they should be so you can measure to see if they've stretched (my recollection is that the specified lengths are the "usual" bolt length measurement, excluding the head, despite the fact that the diagram shows the head being included).

Some electronic gauge senders have two outputs, one for the gauge itself, and another for the oem light. The block thread is 1/8" BSP.

Yeah, it's not a timing belt problem. Thanks though... definitely a good thing to check. I just realized that my idea of switching the plug positions won't work either, because the crank angle sensor pickup is next to the #1 plug and the sensor plate has a larger hole for the #1 plug.. so the ECU would be confused if I switched the plug wire locations. I think I might just rotate the distributor gear. Either loctite it on (shaft retaining compound) or drill a new hole for the roll pin.

Tried to search, didn't find anything. I assume this is a basic standard transmission question, but I am new to standards... So my truck pops out of 4th gear... I think it only happens when I'm off the gas. Two things I can think of that would cause this would be broken "dog tooth", or possibly some kind of problem with a detent in the lever mechanism... I sorta guessing that eventually I'll just replace the transmission (or rebuild it if I decide I want to educate myself), but if there's some easy fix I can do through the floor then I would try that.

Interesting... so I guess they aren't all the same. Couldn't find anything helpful in the FSM. I thought I saw a similar 7 notch pulley in one of the timing belt threads, but I can't find the right one at the moment... I think I'm going to try switching the plug wires around on the cap. I think that should work.

Yikes. Only takes a couple minutes to pull the passenger valve cover to look at the #1 valves (might be able to tell if they are stuck). You can also rotate the engine by hand and see how they move...

Hmm. Maybe I can just switch the wires to different sockets on the cap.... so move 1 to 2, 2 to 3 etc. Maybe then I could get it right. I guess there is nothing particularly special about which wire goes where...

Actually, that's another reason why I think the picture is wrong. The FSM tells you to look at the distributor shaft and rotate it to align two marks and then install the distributor. When I do this the the rotor does not point in the same direction as in the picture. My rotor ends up pointing "west" or "northwest" (meaning, pointing to the left and a bit towards the windshield, when you're facing it). The diagram in the FSM seems to show it facing southwest, so maybe I'm the odd one out somehow. The crank pulley has 7 notches on it, right? with the "furthest left" being 0, then 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 BTDC. So I am trying to line it up with the middle mark...

Yeah, the FSM has the rotor NOT pointing at the #1 plug, hence me thinking it is wrong, or my distributor cap is "wrong" which I suppose is possible since it isn't OEM. But the last one was the same way.

Well, more or less. My understanding of the system is as follows. The rotor is quite wide, so it actually makes contact with the plug terminal in the cap for a while. This allows the ECU to adjust the timing. As long as it sends the spark when the rotor is in contact it will fire. The point of rotating the distributor is to rotate the crank angle sensor with respect to the rotor and therefore the camshaft. This allows you to "tell" the ECU where the cam/crankshaft "really is." Anyway, I don't think that is really relevant to my problem which is I can't get it to 15 degrees BTDC! I'm basically wondering if anyone else who has swapped cams has had a similar issue and if there is some other fix other than filing the distributor bolt slot...

Nope. Providing that when the FSM says "right hand" it means "passenger side" and vice versa. Apparently there's only about a 4 degree total offset between the two of them anyway, so that wouldn't make this much difference. My rotor has never (not now, not before) pointed like it does in the picture in the FSM either.

So I replaced my camshafts and the left one with the distributor gear seems to have the gear "offset" from the oem one. So when I put the distributor in the rotor doesn't point where it used to. Ok, so I adjust the timing. Except I get to the end of travel of the distributor rotation and I'm still at 22.5 degrees BTDC. So I pull out the distributor and put it in one tooth over, and crank it all the way back in the opposite direction, but now I'm at 10 degrees BTDC. This is a VG30E and I want 15 degrees. Ugh. Am I missing something obvious? I guess I need to file out the adjustment notch (a fair amount) so I can get it right... hopefully the dizy won't hit the valve cover or something...

Yikes. Sorry for the bad advice!

I forget the warpage limit (it's in the FSM, but I don't have mine here now), but you can easily be over the limit if you don't clean the gunk off. Almost everything with cars, as far as I know is "left = drivers, right = passengers." Mine certainly has the L3 on the driver's side. Reversing them changes your timing slightly. When you pull the heads you will get a ton of coolant in the cylinders if you don't remove some drain plug lower down on the block. An unbelievable amount of coolant seems to come out, but it's because it is draining from both heads. I don't really see the connection between a broken intake rocker and consuming coolant... but it seems fairly crazy to open an engine looking for a coolant leak and find a broken rocker arm just by coincidence...

Ah, thanks. Ok, I have the wrong wire hooked up then. The plastic part on the one I connected is broken so I couldn't tell.

I would think you could just clean it up with Brakleen if necessary... but anyway, good luck, this sounds like a tough one. I was thinking of taking my hubs apart to check the bearings soon as I seem to have some play, so hopefully I don't have the same problem.

Try putting on a better penetrant than wd-40 as a first step...

You broke two ratchets? Might want to try a better brand... and possibly more heat. Did you just wear out a rubber bushing for the strut mount and that's why there is play? I'm not familiar with the later model pathy, sorry.

How do you tell the difference between the plug that goes on there and the one that goes to the AC compressor? I don't have AC (but I still have the plug) so I can't just check to see if my AC doesn't work to see if I switched them up...

Well, it's supposed to be torqued to about 100 ft-lbs I think. However, my impact wrench is rated up to two hundred and something and it took several minutes of continuous impacting before it moved. Of course now it isn't rusted on anymore so it goes on and off easily...

I highly doubt it. There are probably a lot of things that can cause high idle other than the AAC valve though. Have you checked your timing, vacuum leaks etc?

I'd say just replace your calipers. Shouldn't be too expensive. The swap is pretty easy, just unbolt the two bolts holding the caliper on and unscrew the brake line. Reverse to install the new one. You'll have to bleed the brakes... so having help would be nice. Check your rotors too, quite likely for them to be damaged/destroyed by a malfunctioning caliper like that. They are shockingly cheap.

Ah, ok, thanks, I was looking at the lower manifold. Yeah, I think I know where you are talking about now. I bet this is going to make filling the coolant way easier.