Changing the timing belt on my car. Need advice.

Hi. I have an '86 Mitsubishi Cordia and I am trying to change the timing
belt on my car. I'm waiting to see if someone will lend me a chain
wrench in order to remove the pulley in the crankshaft spot. In the
meantime, I thought i'd ask a few questions.

After I put both the car's timing belts properly aligned, will the car
be good to go after everything else is put back exactly the way it was?
For example, will the spark plug cables work in the same position as
they were before the belts broke or will the cables need to be
readjusted somehow? What i'm trying to ask is: is the're another step
after you install the timing belt? For some reason, I think that i'm
going to install the belts and the car is not going to work properly.
Any tips? Thanks

 

Install the belt incorrectly and you may ruin your engine. Based on your
email I suggest you take it to someone that know what they are doing.

 

From: (Y.T)

I was originally planning on selling the car to a junkyard. I either fix
it or it goes to the junk yard. It's not the type of car that the valves
bend when the belt breaks. The worst that can happen is that the engine
wont work right due to the timing belts being misaligned. It's not
recket science. It's just a timing belt.

 

If you get all the timing marks lined up correctly you should be fine. A
purist would probably realign the ignition timing afterwards as putting

 

From: (Randolph)

Thanks for the info.

 

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Leviathan,

If you've got a service manual, or at least the sheet of paper that
comes with the 'timing belt Kit' (which often includes a replacement
idler/ tensioner), you should be good to go. With plugs removed, turn
the engine over by hand a few times and recheck your belt alignment
marks. This also helps the belt to get 'centered' on all the gears /
tensioner. Then tension the belt and lock the tensioner in place. You
usually have to put tension on the cam gear or the crank bolt to make
sure there's 'slack' where the tensioner is. Your timing should not
change at all, if your belt was previously installed correctly.

I just did a Mits 3.0L a few weeks ago (Dodge Caravan)

You forgot to mention your engine type, or mileage, but if it's a 3.0L,
just flipping the engine over with the starter will crack the crank bolt
loose when your ratchet handle hits the chassis....

'Curly'

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