Broken car

[Skellington]

I guess I have a reason to work on the beater this weekend. I was driving to work at about 60mph when I lost all power. I let off the gas and pressed it again with no responce. I then pressed in the clutch and put it into neutral. When I did this the RPM fell to 0. After pulling over I cranked over the engine and it spun over very quickly as if there were abosolutely no compression. Car got towed to my house. Looks like I will be digging into it this weekend. I am almost certain that it is the timing belt. I am assuming that this is fairly easy being a single overhead cam design.

[Legend_master]

damn man that sucks, let us know what you figure out.

[Skellington]

I'm thrilled that it broke when cruzing down hwy 41, and not after beating the Mazda I raced the day before. That would of been embarrassing. I am actually excited that I have an excuse to work on it. If i can resurrect it, I will be doing all suspension next and then, new CV shafts.

[Skellington]

The timing belt is stripped on a number of teeth. Seeing that they are all in a row it made me wonder if a valve gave out and the force of it was enough to shear the teeth on the belt. After pulling the belt out I rotated the camshaft over a few times and observed the valves. They all seem to be working fine. I now need to get the 16mm bolt / nut off the lower crank wheel with an impact. As I have been taking things apart I have noticed a lot more things the car needs. motor mount, all belts, suspension bushings... the list goes on.

[88lxi-shortram]

16MM? mine was a 19mm if i recall. the easiest way to get it off is with a huge bar and a good ratchet. ive always been taught to stay away from impact guns on old cranks but that just may be an old timer thing. the engine is still in the car i assume?

[Legend_master]

16MM? mine was a 19mm if i recall. the easiest way to get it off is with a huge bar and a good ratchet. ive always been taught to stay away from impact guns on old cranks but that just may be an old timer thing. the engine is still in the car i assume?

I think that just applies to the installation of the bolt. Removing it with an impact should not be bad as link as the bolt is not seized with rust.

[Skellington]

Have an impact. I’ll use it carefully just to remove the bolt. The engine is still in the car. I would use a breaker bar if I could, but there is no room beside the block. Plus id have to jamb something in there to keep the crank from spinning. I am accessing the pulley from below (removed tire and crawl in wheel well). I removed all the protective plastic to get to it. I have a monstrous 5 day weekend starting tomorrow, so I should be able to get her purring again.

-RWD corollas are much easier to work on.

[Skellington]

16MM? mine was a 19mm if i recall. the easiest way to get it off is with a huge bar and a good ratchet. ive always been taught to stay away from impact guns on old cranks but that just may be an old timer thing. the engine is still in the car i assume?

19mm for lug nuts and the one on pully is smaller. Pretty sure its a 16 or a 17.

[Skellington]

The crank bolt is a 17MM. Whole process took about 2 hours for a non mechanic. Worst part was getting the water pump pulley back on with NO ROOM to get the bolts started.

Here is my resurrected franken-beater!:

[g.frost]

Congrats on getting your franken-beater back to life. Do you have any idea how old or how many miles was on your old belt?
.....I'm biding my time on one, not too many miles but many years old. Good to hear another went without valve damage.

[Skellington]

Thanks.
I have no idea on the age of the belt. There will be no damage to your engine if it goes.

[lostforawhile]

did you replace the belt tensioner? usually it locks up and thats what strips the teeth off of the belt, you can usually get them in a kit with the belt

[Dr_Snooz]

Glad you got it working again.