Focus Fanatics Forum banner

Timing pin and bar measurements?

10K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  Insaniac 
#1 ·
Sorry for the separate thread, but it wouldn't be seen in the other one. My timing belt snapped, I'll need the tools.

Anyone have ones they can measure? Thread size, length, and diameter of the pin, and dimensions of the bar?

I'll have a touch time scraping together money for the timing kit, let alone special tools, but I do have a lathe and mill in the garage. I could cut the appropriate bolt down to size.
 
#4 ·
I've been reading through the how-to already. Good stuff. :)

I can't really wait, though. The car's in a parking lot of a building that is, thankfully, under renovation, but I doubt the owners want it there long.

I can manage this sort of thing with a screwdriver or the like if need by, but I'm well aware it will suck hard.
 
#6 ·
FWIW I think he means doing it by using the screwdriver down the plug hole to find TDC, wouldn't work to use one down the timing pin hole......

It's not like sticking a dial indicator down there, but you might be surprised how close you can get to exact TDC that way. Even with a dial indicator it takes a bit of back & forth wiggling to find the "center" of the piston's "dwell" at TDC. Fingers work quite well at feeling for the right spot.

If you need to do a "quick & dirty" belt replacement, where you leave the adjustable cam gears alone & just slide the belt on once you get the basic timing position for the crank & cams set up, the "screwdriver method" is adequate to get the cogs in the right notch & get the thing running!

Older engines weren't timed any better than the closest notch, and anyone who's done one of those would know how to get the Zetec timed that well.... Once the cam gears get their initial "set" at the factory, unless the engine has been rebuilt timing variations from a different belt will be minor. Nice to get it 'exact", but it should run fine with the original adjustment left alone. In fact, the "cam bar" is only NEEDED when you are resetting the cam gears since you can eyeball the cam position by the notches for the bar close enough to get the new belt in the right notch on the gear.

Certainly not as easy as when everything is locked in the right position, but certainly "doable".

Cheers!
 
#7 ·
Amen brother. Loosening sprockets is what causes all the trouble, once you do then you can have partial tooth errors all over the place. Not loosening sprockets means you can only have full tooth errors which are much easier to see. The Ford procedure sets up the mechanic to have much more trouble to me. Then VCT confuses the issue even more.

The entire idea of the camtool is to get you merely right back where you were before you loosened sprockets to begin with. Silly.

If the timing belt teeth spacing was truly off virtually at all the maker would be out of business overnight. Those teeth have to be CLOSE to run at all well.
 
#11 ·
Personally, I wouldn't ever replace a timing belt on a zetec WITHOUT loosening the gears. Its incredibly simple on the non-VCT setups to un-torque the gears, line up the cams with the bar, install the belt, set the tensioner, and torque the gears back down. Even on the SVT, the VCT is pretty simple once you start playing with the cams and gears to see how they behave.

You want to loosen the gears so the NEW belt can rest *exactly* where it wants to without being pre-tensioned in any direction. If you leave the cam gears torqued you can have un-sprung tension in the belt that will pull the timing out of perfect alignment when the car is running. Not only that, but it seems like every zetec came out of the factory with the cams lined up a little different, and often times, less than perfect. Loosening the gears gives you the chance to set the timing perfectly.
 
#10 ·
You dont need to buy the tools , I have built hundreds of Zetec engines and or heads and never used them
I use a file in the cams or you can get a flat bar and cut it from home depo and a screw driver in the #1 piston hole , get TDC and bar in and your good to go , your going to get a s close with this as with the tools , trick is to make 100% sure your at TDC

If your 100% TDC you will SLIGHTLY turn the engine each way and the screwdriver wont move , lock the came , install the best

Tom
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top