So, changing the timing belt in my 97 2.3, I marked the crank pulley with white out when the notch on the cam pulley lined up with its mark. After I got the crank pulley off, I discovered about 25-30 degrees difference between when my marks lined up and the factory dimples lined up (like 3-4 teeth off at the cam). I thought, hmm, that's odd, and lined up all the factory marks. Put it together, and it idled like the 501 in my F-100 and would not rev at all. I'm about to go put it together using the marks I made on the crank for reference, but I can't figure out why there would be that much difference... Could it even run at all if the timing was that far off?

Thanks

 

Nevermind, I am an idiot. I was looking at the notches on the back plate of the gears, not the actual markings, which are engraved, though very lightly, on the plates. What in the world are the notches for???

 

To make sure that you're paying attention...

 

Here's something that's strange.

After my timing belt broke I realigned the gears with the stamped (or engraved) diamonds on the backing plates for both the cam and aux gears. Wouldn't run.

Finally gave up and aligned the gears using the formed groove on the backing plates with the triangles on the back of the belt cover and it started right up and ran. (Unfortuantely, it's not running very well yet - rough idle and no power.)

Why would one engine use the diamonds and another use the grove for timing alignment?

Brian
97 2.3 - 5speed

 

I don't know what y'all are talkin' about as far as marks on the backing plate and on the back of the belt cover.
The marks to use are:
Cam: there is a triangle embedded in the front edge of the gear. It is aligned with the pointer that is at about the 4 o'clock position, which would be visible externally if you removed the plug from the timing belt cover.
Crank: the engine should be at TDC. There is a groove for the woodruff key that should be at the 12 o'clock position. When the pulley is mounted, the timing mark would be at about the 2 o'clock position.
Aux: no marks that I know of. If you have a distributor, the rotor should be pointing at the #1 plug wire.

If you have it all put together, turn the crank to line up the timing marks to TDC. Remove the rubber plug on the belt cover, and look for the triangle to line up with the center tic on the pointer. If you have low power, you may have set the ignition timing incorrectly, for those that have a distributor.
tom