Quick CPS questions.

[SASHO91]

How do i get the center timing belt cover off? or do you need to take it off to take the sensor out?
what all has to come off, tensioner pulley/bracket, and the power steering pump pulley?
do you need to take off the rear timing belt cover as well?? or can you snake it around the cover?
this is on a 95 ATX.
TIA.

 

[SHO_Diehard]

I've only done an ATX once (is the MTX the same anyway?). I do know the rear cover did not have to come off. IIRC the center cover hooks around the rear cover. The place where it goes behind the rear cover is on the left side as you look at the cover. Make sure you have all the bolts out.

Sorry I cannot remember more, that was last summer. I do have a spare cover in the garage, I'll look at it to see if I can make any sense out of it.

 

[SHO_Diehard]

Okay, I think this is right but I'm guessing a bit since the rear cover is still on the parts car and not here. If you look at the left side of the center cover, part of it goes behind the rear cover. A bolt goes through the rear cover and into the center cover. This must be the bolt that results in the broken center cover, I've heard unbroken covers are becoming rare.

Not sure what all has to come off, maybe this will help you figure that out.

Mark that bolt, otherwise you will be trying to figure out which one goes there later.

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

How do i get the center timing belt cover off? or do you need to take it off to take the sensor out?
what all has to come off, tensioner pulley/bracket, and the power steering pump pulley?
do you need to take off the rear timing belt cover as well?? or can you snake it around the cover?
this is on a 95 ATX.
TIA.

:EDIT: saw your sig, then saw you specified ATX.

THIS is MTX, I dont know if it is different:

To replace the CPS, you have to remove quite a bit. How old is your timing belt? Because if it a bit old, you might as well throw a new one in there. Becasue the existing one is coming out.

And yes, in order to do it right, the center cover has to come off.

Remove:

Both idler pulleys and brackets.
Crank pulley
Belts
Lower timing cover
Intake crossover tube
Upper timing cover
Middle timing cover
Timing belt
Crank timing belt sprocket

THEN you get to remove that tiny little pain the **** sensor. But careful, dont strip the screws!

And you may want to replace a few seals while you have the entire fron tof the engine apart. Cam seals and front main are right there.

 

[SASHO91]

ok.. this is how it went...
we didnt have to take off the middle cover... just moved it enough to get around it.
got the sensor in and gapped. we did not have to remove the crank sproket.
but as we were putting everything back together, we noticed that the crank key ( i think thats what it is, the little tab on the crank) was NOT in the slot..... it looks to be jammed between the sprocket..... how could that have hapened??? Another thing, upon removal of the torsional dampner (harmonic balancer), i found that the bolt for it, was HAND LOOSE...... yes... HAND LOOSE.... and guess who did the work before.... FORD..... could that have caused the crank key to slip, so to speak???
as it stands right now, we have the covers back on, with the cps in place.
what do we need to do about that....
Need some help on this ASAP guys.... TIA

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

glad to hear it went alright.

And yes, that is one way to get "crank cancer".

 

[SASHO91]

soo..... what do we need to do??
and how did this happen? could we have done it when removing the balancer??

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

It really depends upon the extent of the damage.

Could you get a close up photo of it?

More than likely you only need a new key. But if it turn damaged either the procket key-way or the dampener key-way, youd jave to replace them too.

Worse case scenerio would be that the key damaged the crank key-way.

Then you really have problems.

 

[SASHO91]

the key way is fine... its the key that is "messed" up....

is it possible that it was like this before we started? And could that give the car any running problems? Also, can we put it back together, and drive it.... i know its not the best idea, but it may have been like this all along.... we have been trying to pin point the source of this problem. we thought it was the cps, (which was not very clean) but now seeing this, could that have caused problems, as in drivabilty?
We can take pics, but it will be awhile till we can get them up....

 

[SASHO91]

ok here's the pics....

it dosent look good.... i couldnt get any better pics, and i couldnt get the flash, to work....

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

Holy smokes!
That isnt from a loose dampener bolt. That HAD to have been installed that way.

I think it is safe to say that to do it right, you need a new sprocket.

But honestly, if it has been like that for a while, and seems to be tight and free of movement, it MIGHT be okay just to thow it back together.

But keep in mind that the motor will be (and has been) pretty out of time.

 

[SASHO91]

hmm... well that would have been ford.....
could this be a progressive problem? Could ford have put it in right, but yet wrong... as in not installed properly?
what would this cause? as of symptoms?

 

[NotSoSlowSHO]

even with good pics, it is hard to tell.

Is the key absolutely lodged in there? Or is it loose?

 

[SASHO91]

its logded in...

if that would have happened while driving, wouldnt the pin have sheard? i mean, to the point were you can see were it "broke"?
But, i did take a flash light, and look down the key whole, and it looks like the key is still in one piece, if that makes any sense....

my friend said that when he took the car to ford, they told him about a 3 piece crank disc assembly... but he cant remeber exactly, as it was 3 1/2 yrs ago....
but, maybe they meant, the dampner/the small disc/ and the sprocket???? maybe??

anyways... i guess were going to put it back together, and take it back to his house, as it is at my garage....

 

[SHO_Diehard]

Did the car ever run properly after the Ford maintenance? If it did, then the sprocket must have been installed properly but it wore out because of the loose bolt.

I wouldn't plan on driving very much like that, if at all.

 

[Rockledge]

You should pull it all apart and fix it right.

(Easy call on this one, IMO).