k9sar

PB Blaster and heat are your friends

I use a long thin screwdriver wedged between the fan shaft and one of the other bolts. Crack each loose while you have something to brace then it's easy to remove without holding it tight. Another way is to use water pump belt itself. Either clamp 2 sides of it together or tie a rope around sides and twist until the belt is WAY too tight on the pulley. That will use the engine to hold things in place while you remove those pesky little bolts. and a ratcheting box wrench works great

I have a reader if you want to come down here where it's warmer

outer cover of the timing belt. sorry for the confusion

should not be possible to put it on backwards. Biggest pulleys toward the engine, smaller (with boltheads) to the outer. once everything is together, including the coil wire to the distributer and the disty cap on... hookup timing light (3 connections.... battery positive, vehicle ground, and wire to plug#1) loosen bolt under distributor so you are able to rotate it slightly start the engine point timing light at pulley's timing marks and hold trigger (will strobe) hand rotate the outer casing of the distributer by hand until your timing mark is lined up to the pointer on the outer cover. Should hear difference in how it runs once in the right position, tighten bolt and recheck with timing light to make sure it didn't move when tightening.

I would go yellow to yellow. Looks like that was some sort of mark or foreign crap that indicates some sort of alignment between the 2 pieces. As for timing.... it will only go onto the crankshaft one way due to the key.

the inner part and the pulleys should have been kept together and the crank pulley assembly taken off the crankshaft by removing only the big-ass bolt and pulling the entire thing off the keyed shaft. http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/1995_Pathfinder/em.pdf see EM-12 for the assembly order of washers etc. and yes, the timing adjustment is at the distributor. Underneath it, next to the shaft that goes into the block, there will be a bolt through a slot holding it in place. If you loosen the bolt, you should be able to rotate the distributor a bit to change the orientation of the plug posts to the rotor. Once your timing marks lineup to 15 BTDC (see previous post), you tighten the bolt again. I hear you about the lines not lining up after cranking. I can assure you mathematically that they will eventually lineup again. As long as you are counting from the marks on the sprockets, the lines no longer matter. That's jut put there to help not be a tooth off when you first install it. For the crank pulley, if you took the front part off (4 bolts I think) and the rear pulley is still attached to the guts of the thing (rubber part), you can probably just bolt the damned thing back together and not worry about it. I don't think there is any way to make sure it's exactly where it was before. To put the entire thing on the crankshaft, it's keyed so the balancer should be good with respect to the crankshaft itself 9which is why it's there, not the outermost pulleys)

should be rear plate, then a keyed flat thin washer, then the crank sprocket, then another keyed washer (this one has a curved rim I believe that turns away from the engine, then the front cover, then the crankshaft pulley (ie, harmonic balancer assy) then the fat washer cupped inwards then finally the big-ass bolt. see pg EM-12 http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/1995_Pathfinder/em.pdf I have never separated the vibration damper (rubber part) from the crank pulleys (outer part) but I would think it's a bad idea since they are 'balanced' and if you don't get them assembled in the correct orientation, you could magnify the out-of-balance situation.

BTDC is Before Top Dead Center... it is when the plug actually fires in relationship to the position of the #1 piston. The plug should actually fire at the tail end of the compression stroke, just before the piston reaches it's maximum stroke... hence BEFORE TDC. This provides a hair more compression and full use of the detonation power in the cylinder. It is the BTDC adjustment of the timing that causes your rotor to be just beyond the #1 post in the distributor when the piston is at TDC (ie, it has already fired and moved 15 degrees of rotation on the crankshaft). This is not anything to worry about when assembling, just adjusting after it's together BUT you must be CLOSE or you won't be able to adjust the timing by rotating the distributor. I was worried that you had previously installed the belt with all 3 lines aligning to the indents on your sprockets, then took it off, turned the sprocket, and put it back on, shifting one tooth in rotation. That would be bad since it would change your tooth count and the timing on one of the cams. As far as the video... the second seemed better than the first but... again... my concern that you changed the relative positions between the 2 cams. When you count teeth, you're counting from the marks on the cam sprockets, not the dimple on the rear cover, right? Here's a vid that shows the relative position when at TDC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH20d5AOWDU Note, the spots where the indent on the cam sprockets are painted white. those are the marks you care about. Easier to see in this pic... http://z32.wikispaces.com/file/view/DSC05861.jpg

not sure what you mean by "twisted the right cam" but let's make sure everything is where it should be. ok... I would definitely put the balancer on and tighten the bolt snugly. You can remove it again later. disconnect the coil wire throw a big-ass wrench on the crank bolt (holding the balancer in) and hand turn the engine, clockwise, until you get all 3 lines on your timing belt to lineup with the dimple marks on all 3 sprockets count the teeth between the cam sprocket dimples (40) count the teeth between the right (drivers side) cam sprocket dimple and the crank dimple (43) remove the distributor cap and make sure the rotor is near the #1 firing point 9where the plug#1 connects. follow the indication on the cover to see which post is for #1. I believe it's just to the left of the actual plug-in point Pull the #1 plug and stick a screwdriver or bamboo skewer in the hole carefully rotate the crank shaft back and forth about 20 degrees each direction to see if you are at the top of the stroke Look at your balancer and make sure that the timing marks are on the top. If you are at TDC, the leftmost mark (or next to leftmost) will be on top and the rest will be to the right (toward the 1 o'clock position)

if you didn't remove your distributor from the block, you don't have to worry about this. This is a set of instructions for how to reinsert the distributor if it had been removed. For setting the timing, you loosen the screw on the distributor, allowing it to rotate some. Hookup the timing light to the #1 spark plug and point the light at the harmonic balancer with the engine running. For 1990 and beyond (90+), the timing should be set to 15 degrees BTDC (before top dead center) and pre-1990 is 12.5 degrees. I forget which timing mark is which but it shows in the Factory Service Manual. You can most likely use the 95 FSM since I think the engines were the same as yours.

mine sounds like it's full of gravel again but it's too damn cold to do anything about it. Don't think I have to worry about overheating due to a failed clutch.

is it still 40 and 43 on the 3.3's? just asking

since timing is BTDC, the rotor should be a little past the contact point in the disty (ie. when at TDC, the #1 has already fired and moved on a bit). Do you have a timing light to check the marks on the harmonic balancer while it's running? Do youhave any vacuum hoses off currently that might screw with the ECU?

One small trick I used was to put the belt only halfway on the cams and crank. That put a tad less of an angle on the belt and just a touch bit more slack. Once over the edge of the tensioner, slip it completely on all sprockets. You can also get away with a touch of silicone on the leading edge of the belt at the tensioner to help it slip on. As the belt is toothed and the tensioner doesn't matter if it slips at all, having a dab of lubricant won't hurt the system.

yep... with plugs in you are fighting compression

never replaced mine. I shot it full of silicone cause it was noisy as hell. Let us know how you make out. We're here to help

looked closer at the pic of your disty. If the rotor is where the red indicated, that's near enough to #1 to not be 180 off. Once you fire her up, check the timing marks on the flywheel to tune it in but there really shouldn't be a need to change the timing if it were running well before changing the belt.

IT looks right to me, based on my knowledge of the VG30 engine. The timing marks look to be in roughly the correct location but the distributer is slightly different than the 95 which has the plug wires numbered. If you want to double check interference before starting, you can hand-crank through a cycle (one rev of the cam sprocket, 2 of the crank). If there was any interference, you would not be able to crank it around. Make sure the coil wire is disconnected if you do it. We wouldn't want the engine to start by accident (though I have never heard of an actual case where that happened on a car newer than the 1920's)

Don't forget to followup with a post so future generations know if this was successful or not.

this is local for me http://www.dot.state.pa.us/penndot/districts/district6.nsf/TCamera83?openpage as you can see... sure good thing I had my 4WD pathy to get to work lol

some dude off ebay for some ridiculous price... $20? maybe

Yea, looks like you will get hit worse than me. Original prediction of 2+ feet turned into a few inches. Storm stayed out at sea but everyone in the Philly area is still unnecessarily panicking. idiots.

there's a couple pics from the 95 FSM that show the dimples etc. http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/Pathfinder/1995_Pathfinder/em.pdf pg EM-13 and EM-15