Sorry to be slow posting here this week; the Timing Belt on my 1994 Mercury Villager broke. It’s my own fault, really. When we bought it, we received no user’s manual, and I didn’t purchase one. We were supposed to have replaced the timing belt at 105,000 miles, and our odometer is now somewhere north of 160,000 miles.
The engine and transmission are the same as are found in the Nissan Pathfinder, with a difference: they are mounted over-under and sideways to facilitate front-wheel drive. What it means in practice is that in several areas, I have less than an inch of clearance to remove parts trying to get to the timing belt. I subscribed to AllDataDIY so I could get the technical specs on my engine, and it’s slightly helpful, but definitely no silver bullet to figuring it all out.
While I’ve got it open, I’m hoping to replace the water pump as well. I’m feeling like a mechanic; I should have taken a picture of myself up to my elbows in black grease last night! What it means in practice, though, is that I’m pushing slightly late on my workday getting this blog entry up, and probably won’t be posting more until Thursday. In the meantime, anybody feel like picking up the slack?
So?
How’d it go? Do you hav pictures? How has the experience left you feeling?
Still going…
Well, I finally got everything stripped down. Under all the belts, the darn thing definitely looks like a Nissan Pathfinder engine, stuck in sideways. I enlisted the help of Nathan next door as a spare hand, and, well, I ended up being the spare hand handing him tools 🙂
Some parts won’t be in till tomorrow, namely replacement hoses. So we’ll be sacrificing date night for me to finish stuff up. And you should get your tools back sometime Saturday 🙂
It was actually pretty cool getting down to the timing belt. All the little noogies were ripped off and sitting in the bottom, though the belt itself was intact. Which kind of makes sense. We’d been having some problems with acceleration, and lack of noogies could do that since the timing slip. Lucky there was no permanent valve damage!
How’s the experience left me feeling? Tired, with a sore back. But I’m learning that engines are considerably simpler than computers. They just require more strength to fix, and a willingness to bleed and get dirty. We got the gears aligned perfectly just by eyeballing it, and with the rotor set back where it was, it sounds like it’s perfectly timed. The only goof-up is that we forgot to put on the camshaft oil slinger, so the timing belt is trying to slip off the edge of the sprocket. Gotta remove the belt cover and put that back on, then all that should be left is building the darn thing up again.
I think it actually has cost me more in time and tools than to have a garage do it, at this point. But the experience has been worth it, to at least get over my fear of the darn things.
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Matthew P. Barnson
that’s great
I’ve had so many similar experiences 🙂 Your back hurts for days and you wonder why you ever bothered. But everytime that car starts and you remember you didn’t pay some monkey to fix it, you thank yourself. As for the cost of tools, you may have payed more this time but when you have to change your brakes, you’ll have what you need except for parts. You’ve tackled a huge job and you didn’t break anything. I think you should be proud of yourself.
Ongoing saga…
Well, I got the camshaft pulley on. Turns out to get this dongle attached easily, one must bake it in an oven at 500 degrees F for about 30 minutes.
I found that tip on the Internet after banging on it with a rubber mallet for a half-hour before that 🙂
Once it’s baked, though, it’s a cinch to get on. It just slipped on with no resistance (well, not much) up until the point at which it wouldn’t go any farther before, and a few whacks with a heavy hammer with an old stake in the way to avoid dinging the pulley put it right. No more belt slippage, and now it’s just a matter of hooking everything else back up, and we’ll have a van again! Yay!
And while I was in there, I adjusted our cruise control. I still think we’re going to have to replace the vacuum unit on it, but maybe I bought a little life…
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Matthew P. Barnson
Pictures & More
Christy has made me promise to write up my full experience of fixing my van on the blog, along with embarassing pictures of me coated head to foot in grease. I reluctantly agreed, so I’ll get an update of that sort up as a new blog entry sometime soon. Van works now, btw.
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Matthew P. Barnson
hello
does anyone know how to fix a bwm?
bmw
what probiems are you havin
its easy…
1) pull it into the garage 2) lift hood 3) remove radiator cap 4) close hood 5) back out of garage 6) pull Honda into garage 7) lift hood 8) replace radiator cap
Voila! Fixed!
belt
i need help replacing a timing belt that has slipped off, does anyone know where i can get a diagram of how this thing goes w/ out having to buy the manual?
Aforementioned
The aforementioned alldatadiy site will have the diagrams you require. Really, there’s no way out of knowing how these things work without buying a Chilton manual, or the car repair manual, or having a mechanic friend copy it for you from one of the above.
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Matthew P. Barnson
Diagram
Our local library has all the professional Mitchell manuals. I just make photocopies of what i need. They have the Chiltons manual too, but those are awful.
CAN U HELP ME!!
I stumbled upon this site looking for answers how to fix my car! I have 1996 plymouth neon!! somedays it starts somedays he don’t seems to more so when it’s cold outside!! anyone with any info please help. i have a family and a budget, trying to find out if it’s minor problem or a big one before I take it to mechanic and he tells me that will be 500 bucks !! u know what I mean! no sense of sinking money into something that just won’t last much longer anyway!! PLEASE HELP ME!!!
alldatadiy
http://www.alldatadiy.com/
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Matthew P. Barnson
You know….
It is interesting to see an internet post with this much obvious desparation.
Just take your car to Tunex and ask them what’s wrong.
Your frustration about not finding the info you want on the internet comes from the fact that no one can reliably tell you what’s wrong with your car without having the car in front of him.
(Well, I can tell you that the fact that it is a Neon is an inherent problem you’ll need to overcome)
In fact, let me rant for a bit about that. If you buy a pile of crap like a Neon or a Focus or a Jeep Anything just don’t be overwhelmingly surprised when it suddenly stops being reliable.
The fact that you don’t have an expendable budget for car repairs is the argument FOR buying better cars.
Also, tools are a good investment. $200 on tools and Alldata may very well save you $2000 at the mechanic. Learn to work on your own cars and you will find owning cars much less of a hassle.
——– *This signature is an experiment in Google Bombing mot propre
The problem nowadays is that
The problem nowadays is that as cars become more electronics-oriented it’s getting harder and harder to fix things in a do-it-yourself way. A blown gasket or whoseywhatsit I can unscrew and replace given the right diagram. A blown circuit or computer chip… much more difficult.
—————————– “I can kill you with my brain…” Arthur Rowan
No really
That’s very much not the case. Although it is often reported that way. In fact, I believe the opposite to be true. Most often, it is still mechanical failures that cripple vehicles and not electronic ones.
Also, a car is still very much a mechanical thing, not a computerized one. Most parts and systems run very much as they always have. Steering, braking, suspension, a/c, tires, shocks, and even engines and transmissions are all mechanicaly pretty much the same as always.
The major change computers have made on cars is simply to make them 1) run better 2) run more reliably and 3) have simpler components.
Example: carburation was once the heart of a good running engine. A carburator is a complicated and sensitive piece of machinery. Its is fickle thing requiring constant adjustment, cleaning and repair. Along comes computer control and, voila, fuel injection is now a simple, reliable, and better-performing system.
On-board computers have also made diagnosing car problems much much easier as modern cars monitor every system with precise detail. The computers can then report to the owner and technician almost exactly what’s happening in the car. Yes, sometimes specialized equipment is required to access that data but not always. And even if you have to take it to the dealer to read the data, they can often read it quickly and tell you painlessly what is going on.
Yes, there are computers on cars but they are not even a primary part of most vehicles. The wrench is still the primary tool of auto mechanics.
——– *This signature is an experiment in Google Bombing mot propre
Hmmm… that makes sense to
Hmmm… that makes sense to me. 🙂
—————————– “I can kill you with my brain…” Arthur Rowan
*ignition*
your ignition is very important,if you spend some money on new parts I’ve found the non-start goes away.the Spark plugs wires were changed in my car and found no hesitation,direct igniton and spark and its usually the cap.But if the cap has a module in it costs a lil’more but well worth it. that will solve it.no need to spend any more money on spark plugs,make sure they are clean and gapped “.035″inch and new spark plug wires at “7mm.”******IMPORTANT***** is the new cap. zigman