Hi all,

I've posted previously about a timing belt job I did on my 93 Toyota
Corolla DX, 203,000 miles (automatic.) ( http://tinyurl.co.uk/r6o7 )
Since I've only owned the car for a short period, I've been suspicious
of a slight engine vibration. From the research I've conducted, this
appears to be very normal. I simply have not owned the car long
enough to remember if there was a vibration or not before I did the
timing belt job...

In any case, my speculation got the better of my and I decided to pull
the cam cover and see if the crank and cam timing tic marks match up.
Since its impossible to describe, I set the crank shaft pulley at 0
degrees and took the following pictures:

side view: http://www.networkjournalism.com/images/side_view02.gif

top view: http://www.networkjournalism.com/images/top_view01.gif

As you can tell from the side picture, the cam marking is virtually
dead on. However, it appears a bit left of center. Its not so
obvious from the top view.

If I move the crank shaft so the cam timing mark is more center (which
is a literally a millimeter of movement towards the right), the crank
moves a few degrees. I don't have much faith in the plastic timing
cover tho...when I removed it, it had some damage that I repaired -
therefore its shape may not be 100%.

In any case, my big concern and question is whether the pics fall
within the realm of acceptability. I was sure that it was lined up
when I did the job...but at tight angles its kinda tough to see
straight on.

Thank you all again. You guys are the only mechanics I trust.

Tom

if there's a central spark plug above the piston, you could use
a dial indicator to find TDC.
you read the piston's highest travel point. then turn the crank one way til
it
moves a millimeter (or any fixed amount) . mark the crank pulley.
then move the crank the other direction til the same movement occurs.
mark the pulley.
split the two marks, and that is tdc.
that's an accepted practice where the tdc is not reliably marked.

in the pictures, the offset seems to be less than one tooth on the sprocket.
i seriously doubt the vibrations are from this area.
good luck, sammmm

--

"SlyckTom" <tom@slyck.com> wrote in message
news:ns9oi2hg4pa0u75s50jp0f227d231cci8l@4ax.com...