Jly154

Hey guys I had a mechanic friend look at my 94 gt thinking that my timing was just off and that I was missing something when trying to time it but he said he thinks the timing chain is skipping because you can turn the whole serpantine belt still routed by hand. Any ideas?

64bit

if your timing chain was skipping, your engine would be trash.

its more likely that your harmonic balancer is bad.

Urambo Tauro

A loose serpentine belt is not enough to indicate a timing chain problem. At this point, it sounds like a faulty tensioner.

Or are you saying that the crank pulley turns along with the belt?

Jly154

Ok how do you diagnose a bad balancer?

Jly154

Like the crank pulley turns with the belt I was told it should be more solid and that you shouldn't be able to turn it with just one hand (but it's pretty damn tight trying to turn with one hand) I don't think that's right but like I said was just what I was told I'm still fairly new to working on my own stuff so I don't know a ton lol

Jly154

If it makes a difference right before my car quit running i did notice a very slight squeak squeak squeak until it warmed up

Richard1916

O.K assuming this is a 5.0 since this is the section it was posted under,your bio states 96, lets diagnose balancer first. doubtful it is so loose it is spinning on crank like it broke the crank key.if so put new key in. now check the rubber sandwiched in the balancer, if pieces of rubber flaking out, the outer part of the balancer has spun in relation to the inner balancer hub, and therefore your timing marks are wrong, cant time engine correctly without new balancer. If no problems found by now lets diagnose timing chain, simplest way is to pull distributer cap so you can see the rotor ,now put a ratchet/socket on crankshaft bolt and slowly turn crank counterclockwise till rotor bug moves then stop, now mark bancer with whiteout at the same spot you look through to set timing, now while paying close attention to rotor bug turn crankshaft clockwise slowly and stop the instant the rotor bug moves, now measure the distance from the white mark on balancer if it turned clockwise more than an inch from where it started, thats an excessive amount install new timing chain. if less than an inch did you remove the little grey timing spike/jumper before you attempted to set the timing, if not try that.

Jly154

Ok well it is a 5.0 i must have messed up on my bio it's a 94 lol
When I bump the ignition if the key was broke would it move? I had a buddy bump it while trying to get the marks to line up and the balancer does move with the crank like it should (I think) and didn't really see anything out of place but that's not saying much sense it's on the ground I'll get it jacked up tomorrow and take a closer look thank you for your help

Richard1916

even with a broke key it would move, if its spinning on crank it might make some noise when some load is applied like power steering

Jly154

Ok well I'll check it out tomorrow and let Ya know what I find