abiliojr

Got my hands on a timing light. Hooked up as the Honda manual suggests (jumper clip across the 2 terminal connector under the glove box). Turned on the engine, let it warm up, hooked the thing, got a weird result.

1. For a 1997 Honda Accord, the timing is within specs
2. For a 1998 Honda Civic, the lines are waaaaay out. I added some new paint to the lines, and when I try to find them, they are like 45 degrees off (retarded). I tried moving the distributor, but didn't manage to get them closer than... lets say 30 degrees before I hit the limit of the adjustment.

I did the timing belt myself about a year ago (less than 15000 miles ago), the car is running fine (engine has 110 thousand miles on it). I was very careful that the things were perfectly aligned when I put the belt.

Is it possible? Or is the timing light who is at fault? (it has no adjustment ***** or anything).

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Which spark plug lead did you attach the timing light to? Have you re-checked your mechanical timing after these results? Is your motor all-original?

abiliojr

Stock D16Y engine, cable running to spark #1. No I haven't, I was thinking about doing it first thing in the morning, but I believe no engine can jump so many teeth on the timing belt and still run smoothly.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Re-check your mechanical timing. Is the distributor also Honda OEM?

abiliojr

Yeah, is a stock car, it even has the stock stereo on it

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

Yep, double check your mechanical timing, but it sounds like there's some user error going on here...when you say you used the #1 lead, you used the lead all the way to the right of the motor as you're looking at it from the bumper, correct?

abiliojr

The one that is closer to all the engine accessories like the AC compressor, and steering pump

94 accord typeR

if u remove ur valve cover u might have timing marks on the back side of the cam pulley. makes it easy to set TDC without removing the upper timing covers. there should also be "2" marks on the crank pulley for timing and "1" mark for TDC

abiliojr

Ok, half of the mistery solved. Took out the spark plug #1. Put a long stick down the spark plug hole, and slowly cranked the engine by hand, watching the stick go up. Top dead center didn't correspond to the marks at the pulley.

Went further and removed the valve cover. The timing belt seems to be at the right position, as the marks in the camshaft pulley align when the piston gets all the way up.

So it seems the pulley marks are off. The only explanation for that is that the crankshaft pulley is not at the proper position, but now, what I don't understand is... why? I mean, isn't there a key that holds it in place so it wont rotate? As far as I remember, I did put the key in place and everything was perfectly aligned back then.

Any explanations?


PS: if I get the time, I think I'm going to remove the belts and the pulley in order to check what happened

PS2: I'm gonna leave this tread as it is now, and I'm going to open a new one [https://honda-tech.com/honda-civic-d.../#post49945336] asking for the reason it got out of position

09chaplak

When you change the belt, the last step is putting the pulley back on. If you noticed, the drive pulley has that key in which the pulley can only go on one way. The Crank pulley does not, leaving it susceptible to movement when installing it. This will cause your timing marks to be out of sync making the timing light looking like it's far out of time when in fact the car could be running just fine. You have to make sure the Crank pulley does not move when bolting it back in. When installing the pulley back on, I try to hold it while tightening the bolt as much as possible to ensure it does not move. Then I grab the crank bolt tool to tighten it all the way to spec. Hope this helps.

tony_2018

Instead of asking why, you need to investigate further into it. In this kind of situation there is no "I think", its "I have to".

I'm not even sure why you are comparing timing marks to a honda accord, these are two different engines.

There are no timing marks on the belt so checking the belt to see if its align is useless, you need to confirm the marks on the cam and the crank. Make sure they line up with the timing marks on the covers. If you're uncertain take pictures.