While trying to re-do what I think may have been.

KC1971

MEMBER
1992 HONDA ACCORD
160,000 MILES

While trying to re-do what I think may have been some half way workmanship of a buddy of mine I think somethign bad happened. I wanted to get the seal off of the oil pump shaft and replace it since all he did was put some of that rtv sealant around the old one. In the process I have removed the timing and balancer belts. What I didn't know was that you're not supposed to rotate those things w/o the timing belt on. You guessed it.I did. That was becuause I noticed, after removing belts, that when turning crankshaft, the camshaft mark(top) had moved 180 degrees to the down position. My question is this. If I align all the marks, on all the pulleys properly while I have the no1 cylinder at TDC, does that automatically mean timing is good. Reason I ask is because when it comes to the camshaft I don't know if the valves are set right according to compression stroke or not. Also, directions said not to turn things w/o belts on due to damage from an interference engine. I think I should be, ok, correct since I was only turning engine by hand? Please help!

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,916 POSTS

It's unlikely you damaged the valves by hand. To be safe when turning the camshaft, place the crankshaft about 1/8 turn before top dead center. That will insure no pistons are all the way up where they could hit a valve. Once the cam is lined up, then bring the crank to top dead center. And install the belt.

If I understand your concern about the cam sprocket being off by 180 degrees, it will be every other crankshaft revolution because its sprocket has exactly twice as many teeth. Just turn the crank one more revolution, (always in the normal direction), and the cam sprocket will be lined up.