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I did this job not too long ago, and may be able to help you with yours.
1) Tom Townsend (TT hereafter) suggests that this process is started with the car lined up at Top Dead Center (TDC). At TDC, the flywheel will be lined up at 0deg, and the marks on the camshafts will be lined up (pretty much anyway) with their marks on the cam guides. This will not be perfect, as the old chain has probably stretched a little. If the cams are at TDC, but you dont see the flywheel marks, give the engine another 180 deg turn. A remote starter works great here. Otherwise, you can turn the engine with a screwdriver on the teeth of the flywheel go slowly and be careful. Make sure to take the plugs out to let the compresssion escape.
2) TT wants the flywheel locked for the breaking of the chain, to make sure that the car stays in phase for the rest of the operation. If you have a needle nose vise grip, you could clamp one of the flyweel teeth and that should work fine. Othewise, have an assistant manually hold the flywheel with a couple of screwdrivers
3) Yep. Everything should be turning. Have a bag of tie wraps handy. Tie wrap the chain to the cam gears, roll it a little, cut the last tie wrap, and install another one. Repeat this process like, a hundred times as you roll in the new chain. This will keep everything in phase as you do the job. Really use the tie wraps like they are totally disposable. It will be well worth it to make sure the chain does not jump a link. Do this both on the Intake and exhaust cams. As far as turning the motor, I went one tooth at a time with a screwdriver on the flywheel. Very slow, but highly effective and allowed lots of time to observe that every thing was working fine. Direction: turn the motor so that the EXHAUST side of the chain pulls down and into the car. This is the side away from the tensioner that should have already been removed, and is toward the front of the car.
General notes: once you break that chain, there is no going back. Have everything ready ahead of time.
I used a bungee cord on the intake side of the chain to keep it taut as it pulled up and out of the car. That really worked great.
After I broke the original chain and attached the new chain to the side that was going down the exhaust side, I laid the new chain end onto the intake cam and tie wrapped it down. That's how I turned the intake cam in phase. The old chain coming up out of the engine was held taut by the bungee cord up to the hood of the car.
Finally, note that the lobes of the cam shaft will be opening and closing the valves during this procedure, and will occasionally "snap" over a little. This will seem like the chain jumped a tooth on one of the cam cogs. (There may be some slack in the chain between the cogs after a snap). If you are really dilligent with the tie wraps, everything will be fine. All that happened was one of the cam lobes rolled over and the valve lifter spring pushed it a little farther. Just keep turning the flywheel slowly and the chain will tighten right back up.
Take your time, go easy, and everything should be fine. A nice new tight chain will make your car purr like a kitten and run like a cheetah.
Good luck!
Patrick
posted by 209.240.19...
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