97 accord lx 2.2 non vtec 4cyl 220k miles

Im mid timing belt replacement. Took off the rear balancer shaft gear assy to r+r the oring under it (leaking).

In the process of removing the assy from the block, the gear on the assy moved out about 1mm axially. So now it has about 1mm of end play.

Im just going to put it back together, but maybe someone can share if they had experience with this before. Is this going to be a problem? Or do these gears have normal end play? I see the gear assy online for sale, so maybe these things fail sometimes?

thanks

 

Is your rear balance shaft locked?

Make sure your alignment marks are all lined up and you will be fine.

Good luck,
Sam

 

Thanks Sam. Yep, had the rear balance shaft locked and it all went back together nicely, ie didnt have to redo it. I appreciate your vote of confidence.

After I posted, I realized the front balance shaft had the same amount of end play on the gear as well. So I kinda answered my own question. I'm a worrier with auto repair.

Not to open a can of worms, but my rear balance shaft was probably off a tooth. That is, I wish it would've lined up a to the marks a little more convincingly. It's possible I didnt reindex the gear assy perfectly when I reinstalled it, or Honda has some wider tolerances. However, at this point, I'm just happy its working again. I'm not exactly building an F1 engine.

 

That happens a lot. They don't make them easy to align, in fact, the rear balance shaft is the only thing hard about a timing belt change. My first one I had it off by a tooth and it was vibrating like crazy.