---The timing belt must be replaced before 100K miles. Anyone driving this engine after those miles is driving this car on borrowed time. When this belt breaks you can plan on throwing the car away. If you need to know more about this scenario, let me know.

Capn' Jimmie rates his own page for this advice here !  ( LONG OVERDUE, but excellent information ! )

( By Doug Venus )

Hey Watts,

Well I know it has been a while but I did actually get the timing belt done. I also took some pics for you to look at. The zip file is kinda big, I hope you don't mind.

Also, when you do the timing belt DEFINITELY get the cam locking plate. The part # is in the book. It is the tool that fits in the slot at the back of the cam shaft. THERE IS NO KEY FOR THE CAM GEAR !!! **Everything depends on that locking plate.** Also, TDC is easy to find since there is an indicator on the dampener (which you have to take on and off a few times to Finnish the job)

I used a 3/16 x 1 inch x 7 inch piece of flat bar for the cam locking plate. The only problem I had was that it bent when torking to spec. If GM wants too much, just make one and send it out to be case hardened to .025" or more and it should work. Or make it out of 4130 alloy and hardened to Rockwell C 50 to 54 (better, which is probably what GM makes it out of anyway). Take your time, it was the weirdest timing belt I have ever done.

Lets see, what else have I done. I did put a regular late model GM alternator in where the power steering pump is supposed to go. There wasn't allot of room, but it did fit with moving the air cleaner a bit. I'm still running the old alternator for the vacuum pump (no power steering for me now). It cost me $25 to rebuild the late model alt instead of $450 for the stock one. If anyone needs the same conversion let me know and I'll make the bracket for a small fee. (It took me a few days to figure it out, but power steering is out of the question if you what to do it the way I did).

From Dr. Sean   ( Canadian ! )

Hi Robert, It is the Canadian again. hope you are well.

I did up a  concise step by step of changing the timing belt on the 1.8 . The Chev manual was good but there were a few things it did not say very well, I had never done the cam lock plate thing on any other car so I skipped it on this one. No problem. I have sent the sequence to you below. I hadn't written a thing like this since my days in management. Please feel free to use it on your page, add or modify as you feel it needs. I did go through it a few times to check it and it is very complete. The job it self was quite easy, and if you were a whole lot closer I would gladly give you a hand one afternoon to do yours.


Sean

Here is an easier Timing belt installation on the 1.8 liter diesel engine

1: Remove negative battery cable.

2: Remove fan upper shroud, and air intake, as it gets in the way. Slide the hose off at the air filter box.

3: Loosen the alternator and remove the belt.

4: Remove the 4 nuts on the clutch fan and remove it carefully. If it sticks do not pull it hard as when it comes loose it will hit the radiator. Tap and pry gently.

5: Drain about 2 to 3 quarts of coolant. 6 inches down from the radiator cap is sufficient, it is not necessary to empty the system.

6: Undo one end of the bypass hose and pull away from its fitting. This is a good time to replace the hose if the condition warrants.

7: Remove the upper dust cover, keep track of where the short bolts must return to.

8: With the car in neutral, rotate the engine by the crank bolt with a 35 mm ( I think) or a 1½ inch socket on a long bar to the TDC mark, also make sure the injector gear marks line up, if not, rotate the crank one more turn until the injector lock bolt hole aligns.

9: Remove the 4 bolts inside the circumference of the lower pulley.

10: Insert one of these bolts into the injector gear lock hole. Do not tighten, wiggling the crank a tiny bit may make the bolt line up better. It is very exact.

11: Take a good felt marker and mark the cam shaft gear on top of one of the teeth. Make a matching mark on the plate right behind so you are sure where that gear should be, mark the gear on both sides of the belt and on the gear face too.

NOTE: The cam is pretty solid where it is BUT! In the unlikely event the cam moves, you can locate it by these marks, OR use the "remove valve cover and install "fixing plate" method" outlined in the Chevette manual.

12: Put the car in gear and put on the park brake to keep the crank from turning.

13: Remove the lower pulleys. Mine fit quite snugly, so pry off working from side to side slowly with a screw driver. Hold the pulley while working off, as it is quite heavy, and hurts when it bounces off your arm.

14: Remove the lower cam belt cover, noting the mark facing upwards on the crankshaft.

15: Remove the "belt holder" on the bottom drivers side of the plate below the crank timing belt gear.

16: Final check: Lock bolt in injector pulley

Cam gear is easily identifiable as to where it should be

Note the mark on the crank, should it move

17: Loosening off the tension pulley (under the injection pump): Remove the spring behind the tension pulley, the illustration in the GM manual is very bad, as you could never see it from where they draw it, look for a band spring mounted vertically right behind the uppermost adjustment bolt. Loosen off the tension pulley This includes both bolts, and the hex key in the center of the pulley. Do the pulley center last and slowly.

18: Slide back the tension pulley if it has not slid itself, and remove the belt.

19: Check and see if anything moved.

20: Slide on the new belt under the bypass hose, firstly on the crank pulley, then moving anticlockwise, install the belt on the inside of the idler pulley then over the cam. Keep the belt drawn snug and mesh the teeth into the gears as you go. Once you are over the injector pump pulley, work the belt into the tension pulley. (DO NOT freak out when the oil pump pulley turns, That's OK)

21: Slide the tensioner pulley into position to take out some slack, and snug up any one of the bolts:

22: Check to see if every thing is aligned where it should be. If it is not, calm down, remove the belt, and straighten things out. The crank moved on me, (as I didn't have it in gear) just move it back with the socket slowly. Once things are straight install the belt again.

23: If things line up, install the tensioner spring. Be patient as is tougher to get on than off.

24: Loosen off the bolt tightened in step 21 and let the spring tighten the belt. I went one step further by pushing the tensioner down with a screw driver, and then let it relax into position. Once the tensioner is under spring pressure only, tighten the 2 bolts and the pulley hex bolt.

25: For your sanity check the positions again.

26: Breath a big sigh of relief as the tough stuff is done!

27: Take the injector lock bolt out now! so you don't forget it, and reverse the steps 15 to 1 to finish the job.

Some things are different from the GM manual as a few things are really not always necessary or require superman to achieve the contorted maneuver.

( By Captain Jimmie Moore )

Matt's advice about cleaning the buss bar is good. But it should Q you both in to the real problem as to the timing circuit not functioning properly. - The bundle of connections surrounding the heater circuit relay mounted on the inside of the right fender well. Some 6 to 8 - one, two, and three wire plugs so susceptible to moisture. So how to tell which one. ( I can almost assure you that the passenger side kick panel mounted solid state controller is not at fault. Unless of course the wiring of your momentary switch has inadvertently back fed an unwanted voltage in to it. ) The motor must be in an unheated condition so that the temperature sensor tells the solid state control that the motor is cool. Below 50` C ( 122` F) both relays should operate, above 50` C, only one should operate. We are assuming the thermo switch located at the thermostat housing is functional and the wire connection is clean. Test its conductivity with a multimeter when moving it from a refrigerator to warming water.

Now ready?

Over the years I have seen several glow plug circuits wired with the momentary button or switch as you have done. And It suffices for the owner and regular driver, but let in the novice and it is burned out plugs.

Another item of note, is my experience with the glow plug that breaks off on removal knowing full well that a head gasket repair kit now costs over $ 100. Removal should be done by turning the plug round and round 'scraping' its sides as it is slowly withdrawn.

I did have such a situation with the glow plug. The tip of the plug is made of the softest of copper materials. If you note that the tip did not come out . Take a rod of the proper diameter and gently shove the tip down in to the head significantly enough to clear the tip of the new plug. My experience was that since it was practically all carbonized and almost all powder anyway the cylinder powdered it up and spit it out through the exhaust. When I started the motor- no knocking or clunking was noticed. All this with out an expensive head job.

Can I throw in an important NO -NO before I leave you with the above thoughts?

 ( By Captain Jimmie Moore )

Inside this starter is a roller clutch drive. And inside this neat little clutch drive are little rollers and little springs. The little springs are starting to break up, thus not pushing the rollers into position when the starter spins the drive.

In order to remove the starter, you are going to have to remove the radiator overflow tank to be able to get a ratchet with a long extension down below the pump and along the side of the starter next to the motor block.

Once the starter is removed, note the three small machine screws that hold the clutch retainer in place on the end of the starter that faces the ring gear. Remove these three small machine screws and the retainer and pluck out this great little clutch drive. Now isn't that the neatest thing you ever saw?

( by "John", last name unknown or forgotten. Check in John, and we'll fix that ! )

OK Bob I'll give this a try. A. The starter change was not that difficult First drain radiator. next remove overflow reservoir; then remove heater hose above starter. Disconnect wires; there is now room to reach in with a box end wrench and break loose the upper starter nut; next with a long 3/8 drive extension (about 2 feet) and a universal you can reach in and remove the nut. Now you can also reach the bottom starter bolt with the same extension. The starter is now free and by turning it just so it will come out where the overflow reservoir was. Installation is just the reverse. This is just a little more complex than my Chilton Manuel tells me.After removing the wires it says "Remove the upper mounting nut and the lower mounting bolt, then remove the starter."