shredded timing belt!!!

[cognibeat]

Hi I have a 78 spider and the other day I was driving it and the engine died and would not start. so we tried a push start and that didn't work. today ive been looking under the hood and found an unlimited amount of things that were wrong but the first thing I found was the carburetor was wide open and the connecter to control the air flow was gone. ugggggg. so I fixed that and the car still wouldn't start and that was when I realized that the timing belt was not moving but the crank shaft was. so I found that just around the crankshaft the belt is shredded. I think that the carburetor problem killed the engine and the push start killed the timing belt. I didn't hear any loud sounds though when the engine died so I don't know if my engine is destroyed or not. do I need a new timing belt or a new engine???

[cognibeat]

ok so now i'm replacing the timing belt but I cant figure out how to reduce the tension on it to take it off/put a new one on I cant figure out how to loosen the idler wheel

Any suggestions?

[So Cal Mark]

the 78 should freewheel, so hopefully no damage.
The tensioner has to be loosened to replace the belt. The tensioner has a pivot bolt and an adjustment bolt and the 17mm nut in the middle of the bearing has to be loosened also

[cognibeat]

that sounds like very good news thank you Im going to try to loosen the tensioner and replace the timing belt tomorrow and if my valves aren't destroyed hopefully start it up. If anyone has any tips on setting the timing they would be warmly received.
Thank you.

[JohnnyRaggs]

If you can't move the tensioner once the bolt and nut are loosened, use a prybar (carefully) to move it. Heres the directions for the T-belt (compressed)

- drain the coolant. - removed the upper rad hose from engine.
-removed the Timing cover
-Turn crank until proper static timing is acheived (not sure which engine you have. (mines 10 deg BTDC)
**(when looking at crank from front of vehicle, first timing mark is 5 deg, second (to the right) is 10 deg and third is TDC)**
-adjust crank pullys so that the referance marks on the pullys (small dots) match up with the tips of the pointer bolted to the cyl head.
-loosen t-belt tensioner.
-install new belt
-Take up belt slack with tensioner. Make sure its fairly tight (belt will loosen slightly after running for a bit)
-turn engine over (by hand) one or two full rotations. Make sure all marks are still aligned.
-re-install t-belt cover.
-re-install upper rad hose
-fill cooling system with coolant (preferably new/mixed)
-start engine and run, adjust timing with timing light.
-bleed cooling system of air.

Hope this helps. I have the shop manual, but the wording can get kind of confusing if your not that experianced, I can scan and e-mail the T-belt directions for you if needed.

John

[cognibeat]

thank you soo much I think I have the 132A1 engine. So far I've heard 0 degrees 5 degrees and 10 degrees and I'm not quite sure which one is right. But thanks to you guys i'm definitely better off than before so thanks again.

[mdrburchette]

One thing not in the directions is timing the auxiliary shaft. The alignment mark needs to be set around 1:30 o'clock position or you may have interference with the auxiliary shaft lobe and the #2 connecting rod bolt.

[cognibeat]

allright soooo this morning I got the timing belt all aligned then turned it over and got nothing, there was no pressure coming out of a cylinder so I think my valves are smashed. so Im going to take the head off and see if I can replace the valves.

[spider2081]

Before you pull the head you might ask around and see if anyone has a bore scope. It will allow you to look into the cylinder from the spark plug hole. The more modern ones have a flexible fiber optic shaft that is fairly flexible. They also have a small screen like a digital camera. Maybe a parts supplier like Auto Zone has them in their lend a tool.