Origional Author: Alan J. Richer (OVLR)

Well, in the ongoing insanity of my engine swap, I managed to run into a problem reinstalling the timing chain, and had to work up a fix. Here's what and how.

When I went to hook the chain up, I blew the setup and it turned out that I had the chain 90 degrees off. No problem, says I, and I proceed to pull the front cover again and go to reset the chain.

Not as easy as that...bummer.

It turns out that somewhere in its life my engine, which had its timing mark on the front cover, had its camshaft chain wheel swapped for one that did NOT have the "P" stamped in it for alignment. Neither procedure worked.

Improvisation time again...

First, to the owners manual. OK, the mark it's supposed to be aligning to is 95 degrees BTDC. OK, but how do we set it up?

Well, a little mathematics helped. The engine was supposed to be aligned to 95 deg BTDC being the point of #1 exhaust full open. i set that up, giving myself the needed cam alignment.

I then took the flywheel pulley and measured its circumference. By dividing the circumference (43 cms) by 360 degrees, i came up with a figure of 11.4 cms. for the distance from the TDC mark on the pulley edge.

A bit of work with a file, and the mark was there.

By replacing the bolts with the timing pointer I was able to align the crank and cam in the proper relationship. Compression is MUCH better now... (grin)