help help help...just this afternoon while driving home made it all of 4 blocks away from the front door and turning a corner the car died...rolled into a parking lot & stopped. turned the car off then tried to restart-heard those noises that said somethings not good...popped the hood & checked around/pulled the upper timing belt cover away as far as i could & don't you know it the belt is(was) pretty slack...so it's towed home & in the garage & luckily the local foreign parts store was still open at 215pm/got there with a ride & bought the belt & new roller just in case. now i'm thinking how am i gonna get this in proper time ??? any help out there ???

Dont sweat it. You made out easy. The engine is non-interference, so it wasnt damaged, and doing the timing belt in a 940 is just about the easiest timing belt you can do. You have to worry about 2 pulleys being in alignment (the 3rd middle one towards the right just runs the oil pump and it's timing was only important in 240 cars). The only thing tricky is getting the crank pulley off, which can be accomplished by removing the lower bellhousing (a few bolts and it comes off) and jamming a nice sized screwdriver in the teeth to prevent the engine from turning when you loosen the bolt (better off to use 2 people for this).
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'93 945 turbo. A big comfy box.... and a '90 Mazda 626 GT turbo, 16psi on upgraded turbo and a bunch of other mods.

The procedure is the same as it would be if the belt had not failed with the engine running. You would have to "time the engine" (align the sprockets with engine at TDC) regardless.

Item #4 of the link provided by the other gentleman explains how to do this:

"Line up engine: Use crankshaft center bolt (24mm) to turn engine, bringing the engine to TDC, No 1 firing. This is indicated when the mark on the camshaft sprocket is in line with the mark on the camshaft cover or the drivebelt backplate. At the same time the marks on the crankshaft sprocket guide plate and the oil seal housing will be in line. IMPORTANT! Do not turn crankshaft or camshaft with timing belt removed"

Don't sweat it too much, the engine is a non-interference engine, which means (as you already know) that the valves won't go crashing into the pistons when timing is violated. If your belt broke or jumped off the gear somehow your head and crank are way out of time anyway, so you can disregard all that "yikes - don't turn your cam or crank" stuff. The worst that can happen is that you line up the marks and you are 180 degrees out of time, which will be evident immediately when you try to start it by tremendous backfires or flames shooting out the intake as the wrong valves will be open at the wrong times. Use a little brain power, and pull the valve cover and look at the cam lobes - at #1 tdc (the crank timing marks lined up) both valves in the #1 (closest to the radiator) should be closed, with the forward most lobe (intake valve I believe) pointing towards the drivers side and second lobe (exhaust) pointing towards the passenger side with the upper timing marks lined up. At least you were lucky to have a parking lot handy, I was once driving a mercury marquis that jumped time in the friggin Holland Tunnel at rush hour. I learned a quite extensive new vocabulary that day from all the backed up new yorkers who felt the need to cheer for me as they drove past. Anyhoo, HTH. good luck.

thanks for the insight...i had a feeling at this point moving the crank or cam would not matter seeing as how when i tried to restart the crank probably moved anyhow...

if you need any service info on saab/m-b/bmw, etc. let me know i am sometimes known as the
'service manager'.

Hey, Thanks! I appreciate that. He he - when I hit the powerball I will certainly give you a buzz!

Hey, Thanks! I appreciate that. He he - when I hit the powerball I will certainly give you a buzz!

http://www.brickboard.com/FAQ/700-900/EngineSealsBeltsVent.htm#Changing_Timing_Belt_Procedures_for_B23_B230_Series_Engines

Mark