Hi...

Thanks for your reply. After popping off the valve cover and the upper timing belt cover, how do I inspect the camshaft pulley to make sure timing is correct? Please let me know. Thanks.

 

Rotate the crankshaft counterclockwise by using a ratchet on the crank pulley bolt and observe the camshaft pulley. On the cam pulley, there should be two punch marks on the perimeter, 180 degrees from each other. On one of the pulley spokes there should also be the word "UP" forged on it. This makes aligning the cam pulley very straight forward...just rotate the crank shaft and line up the cam pulley so that the spoke with the word "UP" on it is actually pointing up, and the two punch marks are aligned with the valve cover sealing flange of the cylinder head. When you've got it in this position, look down at the crankshaft pulley and check if it's lined up at TDC by using the locator marks on the timing cover. If the crank pulley TDC mark is not exactly lined up with locators, then the engine is out of time.

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Hi..

Thanks for the reply. I've done exactly as you said and it seems that my engine is out of time. Here's a picture of what I saw. Does it look like the locator mark is not pointing at the white mark on the crankshaft pulley? If it's really out of time, can anyone please tell me how to reset the timing?

Please let me know. Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

If you made sure to align the camshaft pulley just as the diagram showed and you know that the white mark on the pulley is the correct TDC mark, then your engine is definitely out of time. It should line up perfectly, and obviously it has not. This doesn't look like enough to interfere with the valves, but enough to keep it from starting. When a timing belt slips, I highly recommend removing the timing covers and the belt to investigate why. Usually this happens because the belt is old...yours doesn't look new...and stretches a little over time (although the manufacturers say they aren't supposed to). As it stretches it gets loose because the tensioner isn't self-adjusting. Of course, you can re-align the belt and re-adjust the tensioner without major work, but that's not smart. Replace the belt. The auto gods spared your car and gave it a second chance at life. The next time it may break instead...bye bye engine.

 

that is one of the worst honda's "special" that i have ever seen. i had a 100 light bulb and in the daylight too , on mine and still could not tell.
you may have to take the pulley off and clean it good and then take a hacksaw and cut the line groove to make it noticeable. that is what i eventually did. there should be 3 small line cuts that are really close, i cut the middle one, and there will be another one clockwise at 16 -18 degrees (or whatever the timing degrees is) which is the top dead center (TDC) mark. (that is the way the my 1.5 liter 1988 was set up). i do not much make use of the tdc mark - why set it at that and then have to use a timing light to make the dynamic timing correct.

the camshaft is different since they put an "UP" word where the camshaft is to be up and with 2 marks at the 9 oclock and 3 oclock position that correspond to the line running across the top plane of the head. and that is not real visible on the '88 because you do not have a direct visible line of sight to see it (engine mount i think is in the way). there is a red mark in the groove of the 3 oclock position, but that had almost wore off in my case (but that would not make any difference).

hope this helps,
fred

 

I'm very sure that the camshaft is aligned at TDC. The only think I'm not sure of is the white stuff on the crankshaft pulley. It seems there's only one place on the crankshaft pulley that has the white stuff on it, so I'm quite sure it's the TDC mark. Can any one please tell me how to reset the timing belt properly? Thanks in advance.

 

have to tell you as it is my 88 1.5 liter (dont know if yours is different)
turn the crankshaft so that the timing mark on the cover aligns with the cut mark on the pulley (if not for sure, you can put the cover and pulley back on later and align it)
(suppose to take out the spark plugs so that turning the engine is easier)
loosen lug nuts
jack up (make sure it is SECURE) - take off left front tire
take off belts
if with power steering - take the unit off and set it out of the way.
take off valve cover (or rocker arm cover if you want to call it that).
timing cover is in 2 parts. take off the top part.
now you can see the timing marks of the camshaft.
now you have to immobilize the crankshaft to take the big nut holding the pulley (and crankshaft spocket) on. i use of rebar rod and stick it thru the hole in the pulley and wedge it
into the underlip section of the oil pan. would be great to have a 1/2 inch breaker bar, but i use 3/8. need to use deep-well socket to take the nut off. mine is a 17 mm nut. unless you use a 1/2 inch breaker bar, will need to use a cheater bar with 3/8 inch drive (and may need one with 1/2 inch drive)
take the nut off and then take the pulley off. be careful, there is a Woodruff key that holds it in positon on the crankshaft. do not lose the key.
now you can inspect the pulley to see if what you thought was the timing mark was indeed the timing marks. (i posted in a post above about how i mark mine)
take off the bottom half of the timing cover off.
if it was indeed out of time, i would replace the belt. there is a reason that it slipped, unless the spring that is used to pull the belt tight was not a good spring when the last person did the job. but since you are here - i would repace the belt.
there is a tensioner pulley that the belt runs around. loose the bolt that holds the tensioner pulley, and you can remove the belt.

to install, you will need to set the timing at the crankshaft and at the camshaft. momentarily install the lower timing cover and the pulley (do not , of course tighten the nut at this time), and if you need to turn the crankshaft to its timing position (if you took the spark plugs out, you should be able to turn the pulley by hand), then do so. take the pulley and lower cover back off.
Now set the camshaft to its correct timing positon (the nut there takes a 14 mm socket (at least that is what is on mine)).
install the new timing belt. make sure you do not move the positioning that you set for the crankshaft and the camshaft.
a spring on the tensioner pulley gives you the tension for the timing belt. loop the belt around everything and of course around the tensioner pulley and then tighten the tensioner pulley nut.
now put everything back on.

hope this helps,
fred