What parts should I order for my timing belt job?

[ventura ace]

If you put the transmission in Neutral, you should be able to turn the engine crankshaft (either manual or automatic tranny). Definitely take it out of Park, or you won't be able to move it.

Sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. Automatic Transmission: with the tranny in P or N, the engine is separated from the rest of the drive train, so you can select either one if you are trying to rotate the crankshaft by hand. And it should rotate by hand fairly easily if the spark plugs are removed. If it's bumping into something, then you have a problem. Have you already loosened the tensioner?

Your other big challenge, as others have mentioned, is getting the crankshaft nut off. For Automatic Transmission, it's even more of a challenge, since you can't lock the engine to the drive train by putting the car in gear, like you would do with a manual transmission. Hopefully, the impact wrench will loosen the nut without rotating the engine too much. If not, there are other tricks that are a little more involved. Call me if it gets to that point.

If you haven't taken the radiator out yet, I suggest you do that first, and if you really want to have some nice room to work on your list of items, you should remove the front grill and the hood also. it will make your work on the engine a lot easier.

Alvon

[wachuko]

Ok I removed the alt./water pump belt and I then got my father to give me a hand taking out the 3 pulley bolts, kind of a a pain cause we didn't have anything to hold it from spinning...

errr, you had an impact gun... best thing to use in situations like that. The vibration the impact gun creates helps loosen the bolts without the part moving much...

[Fiat88]

Ok I removed the alt./water pump belt and I then got my father to give me a hand taking out the 3 pulley bolts, kind of a a pain cause we didn't have anything to hold it from spinning...

errr, you had an impact gun... best thing to use in situations like that. The vibration the impact gun creates helps loosen the bolts without the part moving much...

No impact gun at the time, it's my neighbors and he wasn't home to give me a hand so I only had hand tools. In about an hour we should be starting to work on it.

[ventura ace]

I'm up and about. Give me a call, and we'll discuss before you get started. Typing back and forth is going to be a lot slower, not to mention that
1) This web site is not working very well for me half the time, and
2) I'm not going to be around the computer much today.

Alvon 805-338-1767

[courtenay]

What is the thread direction on the crankshaft nut? I seem to recall someone saying it is a left hand (reverse) thread.

[wachuko]

What is the thread direction on the crankshaft nut? I seem to recall someone saying it is a left hand (reverse) thread.

In my '83 and '81 is was normal thread... clockwise to tighten, counter clockwise to loosen...

[SLOSpider]

Its a regular right handed thread so turn it to the left to loosen. The vise grips with the chain attached to them make a good holder for the front crank pulley if you need to.

[dacfan]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but this one has been verrrry informative. I'm about to do the same job on my '74 and I noticed my manual says when I remove the crankshaft seal housing to replace the seal, the front of the oil pan will be exposed and to cut the front off of the old oil pan gasket and replace it with the cut front of a new oil pan gasket. It bothers me having a cut up oil pan gasket. Is this the kind of Mario and Luigi shortcut that gave good fiat mechanics a bad rep for following procedure, or does it not matter that the gasket is cut? (I mean no disrespect to anyone of italian descent at all, but Mario and Luigi were really bad plumbers) If it doesn't matter, I'll take the easy way out and not drop the oil pan.
Thanks for any input.

[wachuko]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but this one has been verrrry informative. I'm about to do the same job on my '74 and I noticed my manual says when I remove the crankshaft seal housing to replace the seal, the front of the oil pan will be exposed and to cut the front off of the old oil pan gasket and replace it with the cut front of a new oil pan gasket. It bothers me having a cut up oil pan gasket. Is this the kind of Mario and Luigi shortcut that gave good fiat mechanics a bad rep for following procedure, or does it not matter that the gasket is cut? (I mean no disrespect to anyone of italian descent at all, but Mario and Luigi were really bad plumbers) If it doesn't matter, I'll take the easy way out and not drop the oil pan.
Thanks for any input.

Errrr... others will chime in, but my take is don't do it. If your oil pan gasket is leaking replace it completely... if it is not leaking leave it as is and just change the belt and other front seals.

[narfire]

Nope don't cut the oilpan gasket. two cuts=two leaks. Perhaps loosen the bolts a tad so the pan is loose/drops down a bit to get at the front seal.

[SLOSpider]

Well it really depends on the condition of the gasket on the oil pan. If you are careful when you take off the front cover and work the gasket off the bottom of the cover then you can just reuse it, just install some sealer back both sides and a dap of silicone at the corners.
If the gasket is shot then you can cut it off and either just use a good black silicone to reseal, cut the front of another gasket off, or as said just remove the pan and replace the whole gasket, might as well install a new oil pump while your there. There is NO pressure at the oil pan gasket, at least if your breather is working, so the chances of a leak or minimal but you should take care to put silicone on any corner pieces anyways.

If you oil pan is dented up change it out too. What ever you do not skip changing the front crank seal along with the others.

[dacfan]

Thanks for the help gentlemen. I was just underneath her and the oil pan has taken very few scrapes over the years, but there is some oil on the bottom that has run down around the plug so I need to change the pan gasket anyway. I don't mind jobs like that. I don't think I'm replacing the pinion seal on the diff anytime soon, though. I'll just keep pouring 90 in it and let it fertilize the highways with sweet black crude. Well, I'm off to figure out why a car manufactured in October of '73 has a smog pump on it.

[minimike]

for what it's worth, WD-40 doesn't loosen rusted bolts much. It is a product that is supposed to displace water. W-D Water Displacement. If you want to loosen a rusted bolt/nut try a product called PB blaster. It works great.

[Fiat88]

Ok, I plan to crank the engine tomorrow. It's been taking me a while to complete since I had to wait for some parts to arrive, like a replacement alt. pulley and a new water pump pulley as the old ones were bent. I went with an aluminum water pump pulley from auto ricambi.

Today mounted the trans. cooler back in with new oil cooler lines. I just want to clarify with you guys about the timing belt marks. My neighbor who helped me do the timing belt, is a gear head and works a lot on civics, I showed him the way the book has the marks lined up but he did it a little different. We just marked the cam shafts and the crankshaft with white out before removing the belt so we knew that they stayed at their right position and then replaced the belt that way. He said, as long as your timing was right before, you can do it this way too. I turned the crankshaft by hand several times and it moves freely, so I think I'm ok. What do you guys think?

Edit: We did make sure the auxilary shaft was lined up like Wachuko shows in this pic with the notch:

[wachuko]

Ok, I plan to crank the engine tomorrow. It's been taking me a while to complete since I had to wait for some parts to arrive, like a replacement alt. pulley and a new water pump pulley as the old ones were bent. I went with an aluminum water pump pulley from auto ricambi.

Today mounted the trans. cooler back in with new oil cooler lines. I just want to clarify with you guys about the timing belt marks. My neighbor who helped me do the timing belt, is a gear head and works a lot on civics, I showed him the way the book has the marks lined up but he did it a little different. We just marked the cam shafts and the crankshaft with white out before removing the belt so we knew that they stayed at their right position and then replaced the belt that way. He said, as long as your timing was right before, you can do it this way too. I turned the crankshaft by hand several times and it moves freely, so I think I'm ok. What do you guys think?

Edit: We did make sure the auxilary shaft was lined up like Wachuko shows in this pic with the notch:

What is not clear is if you did this with the cam shafts, and crankshaft at the TDC marks... meaning all marks aligning with the timing marks, if you did, then fire away.