timing belt procedure

[jajaid6]

im replacing timing belt on 93 festiva 5 speed,been a really dependable rusty car,haha.anyways,i have everything off(as far as pulleys and covers go)and now im faced with that crank bolt!i cant get it off and im afraid to wedge something in the visible crank gears to try and get some leverage on this bolt!PLUS-im not sure if this turns clockwise or counter clock?AND-if anyone knows what size this bolt is,not that it matters cause i cant fit a socket with a ratchet on it anyways,id like to know.right now im gonna use either a pipe wrench or a big crescent.if anyone has some answers can you please email them to jajaid6@yahoo.com?i understand they need to be here as well but i dont come here all the time.thank you all for your time!great site!!!!

[MONSOON]

I used an electric impact wrench. Got it off no problem. ccw

[gdawgs]

Right above the alternator(right up on top of the engine out in the open) there is a motor mount with three nuts. Put a jack under the engine, remove the three nuts, then lower the jack and the engine lowers with it. Takes about a minute to do and makes the job much easier.

With the engine lowered you can easily get a socket on the nut. As Monsoon mentioned, an impact wrech is the best way to get it off at that point.

[MONSOON]

Yeah sorry I didnt think of that part. Kind of important to be able to get the impact wrench on it. I ended up cutting a small notch as well to get at it better. Not big about 1" x 2" youll see where it needs to go. and the sheild will hide it when youre done.

[FeistyFesti]

Boy are you in luck, I just finished replacing pretty much everything in the front of my engine about an hour and a half ago and I took some nice pics. I'm a little tired but I will have them up either later tonight or tomorrow for sure. I replaced the camshaft seal, front crank seal, water pump, timing belt, and timing belt tensioner, and cleaned up the disgusting mess or oil in front of the engine. For some reason, Autozone and Carquest gave me a crank shaft seal that was too small, pretty much the same size as the camshaft seal only slightly thicker. So I brought the old, dry rotted crank seal in to compare and it was too small. I then asked them to look up a 94 Aspire crank seal and sure enough, it was the exact size and they had it in stock. Maybe 89s were supposed to have smaller crank seals, I'm not sure but all the parts store seemed to carry the exact same seal. Advance auto would've had to order it so no go there.

[milehighbear]

Hey, I'm soaking in all this info. I've got 200,500 miles on my 93 L and i bought the timing gear kit which includes belt, water pump and tensioner and I think im going to do it in couple weeks. So i reading all the info on this. I guess if i can change front and rear bearings, ball joints, idle arms, and sway bar bushings I should be able to do this. I just need to make sure i get all marks aligned right.

[CharlieZ]

I'm doing the same on my 92 ATX. 251K+ miles. When lowering the engine exactly as mentioned above, I also removed the air vane housing, air filter box, and the interconnect hose to the throttle assy. Removing this stuff provides a lot of working room. With all covers and pulleys removed, it is a good time to brighten-up the timing marks on the pulley and lower timing belt cover with a little white paint. Man does it get dirty down there. Someone posted on here somewhere that the camshaft seal and crankshaft seal are the same in some models.

[FestYboy]

^yes, this is true!. and all of you, listen up!! you DO NOT have to touch the crank bolt to replace the timing belt. i did mine in ~20 min in a parking lot, and did the Justy's in about an hour (having never touched a justy before) but i did need to get the crank blt off that one (thank god for cordless impacts!!).

[milehighbear]

On the Festiva, do you take number 1 plug out so you get compression stroke up and check marks and check where rotor on distributor is. Im from older generation when we had to do this on 55,56 and classic year models.

[FestYboy]

no, just clock the cam correctly and line up the TDC mark on the crank, and you're good to go.

[MONSOON]

^yes, this is true!. and all of you, listen up!! you DO NOT have to touch the crank bolt to replace the timing belt. i did mine in ~20 min in a parking lot, and did the Justy's in about an hour (having never touched a justy before) but i did need to get the crank blt off that one (thank god for cordless impacts!!).

On which Festiva? On my 93, I had to remove the crankshaft bolt in order to get the timing belt off.

[mechanicaldj]

jajaid6 welcome to the forum

you may want to post a location in your profile , so it might be possible someone close could help you out

[FeistyFesti]

Here are pics I took Sunday and today of my timing belt and seal replacement job. I would have finished yesterday but Autozone gave me the wrong sized crank seal.

Word of advice, in order to remove the camshaft pulley, you need to remove the valve cover. This allows you to secure the camshaft with an adjustable wrench. I tried doing it without removing it but could not keep the cam sprocket from moving. In addition, its a very flimsy sprocket so you can't really put too much stress on it.

I used an electric impact, it took about 20 or 30 seconds to remove the crankshaft bolt.
It might be easier to remove the crank pulleys while the crank bolt is still attached. Just remove the four 10mm bolts around the pulley. I used a Sharpie to mark the areas to line up the timing marks, better to use white paint or white out.



Disgusting leaking, dry rotted cam and crank seals will make a mess of your engine bay. I had to use two cans of brake clean to get it nice and neat.



My chewed up upper and lower timing covers. I cut a window out on the top for belt inspection. Cleaned it all up pretty nice, albeit the gasket was toast.



Alternator pulley prevented engine from dropping much further, had to pry a little on engine to get socket onto crank bolt. I used a 13/16 impact deep socket.



Original crank shaft seal on left, wrong sized replacement on right. Ordered one from a 94 Aspire.



Old seal removed and crank area cleaned up nicely.



Old water pump removed and old camshaft seal removed. It is all jacked up from me trying to get it out. Pushed it out from behind using an allen wrench and a pry bar.



New tensioner and spring installed. Somewhat tricky to reinstall. Ask me how and I'll describe in detail.



Pretty new water pump, only $40 at Autozone with lifetime warranty. Glued the gasket on the hose inlet and the actual pump assy for easier install.




New timing belt installed. Checked that all marks were aligned at least ten times before tightening tensioner down. Easiest way to install is to put on the crank pulley first and then carefully slide it onto cam sprocket, with tensioner moved full left.

Checked about 5 more times with belt on and tensioner tightened. Turned crank 720 degrees to make sure marks kept lining up.



Notice the two Sharpie marks next to the two holes in crank pulley. There is also a cut out on the rear of the pulley that has to line up with a pointer on the engine.

Once the timing belt is on, the rest is smooth sailing. It was somewhat hard to reinstall the outer pulleys. A trick to make it easier is to raise engine up enough to get the two pulleys on and then push them back to somewhat seat them. Then lower engine to get the four 10mm bolts started. Don't forget to line up the two spacer plates with the key way pin.

Hope this helps.

[FestYboy]

it's on my '88 (scrappy) just had to remove the crank pulley and guide plate (2 philips head screws) and the belt slipped right off.

[genghis1]

Nice pics. This will help when I do mine - '89 with 73,000 miles and has original belt. The main seal also leaks.