I'm working on a friend's 88 240 for him. It stopped working as he was driving down the road and would not restart (I was not there for this) When he tired to restart it would turn the engine over really quickly with a bit of a whine and not start. I thought "sounds like broken timing belt... not that big a deal. Well I pull off the top of the timing belt cover and the belt looks fine. So I decide to line up the timing mark to possibly remove the bottom half of the cover. I turn the crank bolt and nothing happens! I can "feel" the engine compress as I turn the crank but the timing belt either does not move or does not move very much.
While I've never had to change the timing belt on any of my 240s I was confident I could to it. Now I'm not too sure. Is it possible the harmonic balancer or some other mechanism in there is so screwed up that it's not turning the timing belt? What harm could have been done with the engine turning without the timing belt turning either when I turned it by hand or attempting to start the engine? As I was demonstating this to my friend he decided to turn the engine backwards. Will this cause any additional damage?
Thanks in advance,
Jerry