1986 240.

Replaced timing belt today. Car was running perfectly before...just doing the maintenance.

Removed everything fine except the lower plastic cover. I realized that the cam pulley had to be removed to get the cover off. I was able to remove the nut using the "rope" trick that i read in this forum. However for the life of me, i could not slide the pulley off. I tried to pry it around the edges with a screw driver. In doing so, i cracked the lower cover.

The crack was big enough to give me the horrible idea that i could probably slide the cover off around the pulley at the crack. In doing so, it fell apart into several pieces, thus destroying any accurate timing mark.

I managed to swap out the belt. Tried to line everything up with the markers, but the car wouldn't start. Took it apart and tried two more times. Same problem.

Please forgive my stupidity today...but i have to ask some really fundamental questions.

01. When i rotate the pulley on the right (the one that turns the distributor rotor)...when i line up the mark, the rotor is not pointing to the #1 spark plug wire position. Should i line it up by the mark, or by the rotor position?

02. On the cam shaft...i have two marks. One is on the very inside of the pulley where the timing belt attaches. The other is on the very outside of the pulley where the v-belt attaches. Both are in totally different places. Which mark should i line up with the 0 TDC position on the lower cover's markings? I managed to tape the lower cover together...not as a permanent fix, but just to have it in place for alignment.

Thank you for your help. I am desperate to get this car out of my driveway today so that i can get my other car out of the garage for work on Wed!

Jon Zaremba