HELP!!

I just finished replacing all oil seals, crankshaft sprocket, timing belt, harmonic balancer, and so on, BECAUSE - for some unknown reason, the bolt for the harmonic balancer on the crankshaft had come off without warning, causing sudden overheating and loss of power steering, since none of the belts were turning! I only had the car 1 year and dealt with an annoying oil leak and several fairly minor problems in that time, but nothing serious until now.

I was extremely careful to follow all instructions and set all the timing marks correctly and ensured TDC and so on. I was grateful when it started on the first try!

Problem is - it has very little power on initial movement, even with the pedal to the floor. It takes several seconds for the rpm's to come up and give power. It seems sluggish like this in first and second mostly but seems to have more power once the rpms are up and the car is going faster.

I'm now wondering if, when the pulley came loose in the first place, did it do more damage than I thought? Is it fixable? Is it worth fixing? Am I missing something simple and obvious? Anyone looking to purchase a 245 in Colorado?
Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Thanks once again!
Janalynn
1985 245DL Wagon

Yep, my first thought was that your timing was probably retarded. Easy to correct.

My brother had a Fiat Brava sedan once that he bought NEW that had little power, ran hot, etc. - well, we said, it's just a Fiat after all. Finally I checked it and the ignition timing was way retarded - ran great after we got it reset - almost like a real car, at least for awhile, you see it was only a Fiat...

THANKS!!! I needed a good laugh!

"I was extremely careful to follow all instructions and set all the timing marks correctly and ensured TDC and so on. I was grateful when it started on the first try!"

I've sure you were careful, but please try the following quick check:

1) Get Crank and Camshaft at 0° TDC for Cylinder #1

2) Remove the distributor cap, rotor, and dust shield

3) Locate the small notch in the distributor body, at the #1 wire location

4) Put the rotor back on and compare its position to the notch mark

The center line of the rotor should be about 1/4" PAST (CW rotation) the mark. This is because the mark represents 0°, but the distributor timing is nominally 12° Advanced. In other words, if correct it would have been at the mark 12° ago (before 0°), and should be past the mark now (at 0°).

Believe me, it's easy to get a tooth off on that Intermediate sprocket (BTDT).


--
Bruce Young
'93 940-NA (current) — 240s (one V8) — 140s — 122s — since '63.

Thanks Bruce - I'll check it this weekend. I was afraid that it might have thrown off the ignition timing, but I could not figure out how to check it from the book. I'll let you know. Thanks again! Janalynn