1988 Toyota 4Runner timing problems

WIZARD_1956

MEMBER
1988 TOYOTA 4RUNNER
3.0L
6 CYL
4WD
AUTOMATIC
189,256 MILES

I changed the timing belt with the timing belt kit from autozone.
my problem is that after I set the timing marks up like the say and then manually turn the motor over three time the timing marks on the timing belt moves one tooth for every rotation I turn the motor over by the timing marks on the cam shafts and the crankshaft.
what am I doing wrong or does the new belt have an extra tooth on it?
please help me figure this out.
sincerely
Allen J. Of Mesa
wizard_1956@live. Com

thank you in advance for your help and tips on what to check for.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,910 POSTS

It doesn't matter how many teeth are on the belt. What matters is the camshaft sprocket must have exactly twice as many teeth as the crankshaft sprocket so it turns exactly one revolution when the crankshaft turns twice. The only way for that to be wrong is if they changed the number of teeth on both sprockets, and you used one new sprocket and reused one old one. I've never heard of that, but there's only one other explanation. That is that you're supposed to turn the crankshaft two revolutions in the normal direction so any slack in the belt will get taken up by the tensioning device, and that slack is not on the side where the crank sprocket is pulling on the belt as it comes off the cam sprocket. What commonly happens is as you start to turn the crank sprocket, the slack in the belt gets taken up, THEN the cam sprocket starts to turn, but by that time the crank sprocket has turned one or two teeth already.

This happens to us all the time, but if you keep having the same problem, I suspect you're removing the belt, turning one sprocket, and doing the same thing all over again. Instead, once you see how many teeth you're off, remove the tension from the belt, then carefully slide it off just the cam sprocket, then turn that sprocket the number of teeth necessary. Use tape or a marker to place marks on the belt and the sprocket so you can see which tooth on the belt needs to go with which tooth on the sprocket.