Other than tussling for over an hour trying to remove the AC belt, I finished installing the timing belt yesterday and the car seems to be running good. I also replaced the tensioner because it made a "tinny" sound (don't know how else to describe it) when I spun it. Although there was some dried up oil on the inside of the bottom timing belt cover, I couldn't be sure it was from one of the shaft seals so I didn't replace them.

Questions:

-The key on the front of the cam sprocket isn't very long (1.5 mm?) and once the lower timing belt cover was back on it was difficult for me to line up the slot in the crank pulley with it. If the slot in the crank pulley is not seated in the sprocket key, would the crank pulley work correctly for awhile or would it be obvious as soon as the engine was running again?


I removed the crank sprocket and the flanged washer behind it to check on the crank shaft seal. I noticed there was a key slot on the washer but no key on the back of the sprocket but I did notice a recess of some sort where a key could have once resided. Is there supposed to be key on the back of the crank sprocket that engages the slotted washer as in the front and if so will I have any problems without it?

One of the archives says to be careful not to turn the cam and intermediate sprockets once the timing belt is off. But as long as you line the marks up, isn't it OK if the sprocket/moves as long as it is moved back to the correct location before putting the timing belt on? Are the cam and crank sprocket/shafts keyed togeteher also?

It was great to have a archive notebook with me when I was doing this job and several times I accessed it as I progressed. Thanks in advance!