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Don't do what I did!


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Here's one you guys won't believe. I've been turning wrenches on my own cars since I was a kid with a lot of success. I've done timing belts on Subarus from the 80s before, but my 92 legacy has not yet been done. I bought it with 260k miles on it a few years ago and it was bugging me that I didn't have any history on the maintenance and I drive it 400 miles a week.

 

I found a few tutorial videos on you tube and decided it would be an easy job, so I picked up a belt and a water pump to replace while I was in there.

 

Ok, not going to bore you with the details, other than the guy who replaced the belt before me was nice enough to leave the paint on the pulleys showing the timing marks for me. Nice guy!

 

So I lined everything up with the paint marks, tightened it all up and put it back together and started it. Right away I knew I had one something wrong. This car purrs normally and it was running like it was only firing on 2 cylinders

 

So I tore it down and decided to use the method someone here suggested and counted teeth. Counting from the crank mark, the right side was 41.5 teeth away and the left was 45 teeth away. Crap, the left side was off a tooth. So I fixed it and put it all back together.

 

This time it barely started. It shook like there was a deranged buffalo trying to get loose from the engine compartment.

 

After much cussing (I think the horses blushed during this tirade hearing me from the barn.) I tore it down again and decided to try to find a more clear video that showed the actual markings on the pulleys from the factory and that's when I figured it out.

 

The mark on the crank the nice guy left for me was off by one tooth. So the moral of the story is this:

 

Do your own work, it never pays to follow someone else you never met. I thought that by the time I was 42, I would have learned...

 

I now that guy is still out there painting incorrect timing marks everywhere he can. It's a conspiracy I tell you!

 

-Hilandr

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