Hi Any help would be much appreciated. I have been trying to get this car going again.

I have a 87 Subaru GL 1.8L ea82 carburetor engine Manual Transmission. I am doing a timing belt replacement. Plus, I decided to change the cam and crank seals at the same time. I was following the basic Chiltons book while doing the change. I removed the old belt in the initial part of the change. Now as I am putting things back on, and ready to put on the new timing belt, I am reading to have the cam sprockets positioned differently then they are. On the Driver side my Cam sprocket is DOWN. On the Passenger side my Cam sprocket is UP. Now that I have the timing belts off, how do I move my cams to the proper position to finish belt install? I'm nervous about how they should be correctly moved, all instructions simply say line it up with no in-depth details on how.

Here is the DRIVER CAM with hole DOWN:
http://s12.photobucket.com/user/luckyme218/media/car/photo1.jpg.html

Here is the PASSENGER CAM with hole UP:
http://s12.photobucket.com/user/luckyme218/media/car/passcam.jpg.html



 

Edited February 22, 201412 yr by neelie

hi,

  first , do you have the flywheel positioned with the 3 III marks centered on the bellhousing pointer,, this is key.   leave the cams where they are it is correct to have them opposite, but they have to be exactly straight up/ down, you can use the mating surface of the case to gage by.   the crank and pistons are in the same position each time the marks on the flywheel line up so it does not matter if you do the belts in reverse,,, unless you have moved the distributor, or removed the driver side cam case.. if you did , then your ignition timing is going to be off.   but if you install the belts with the cams in this position and the flywheel marks correct  on  the pointer,  you will be ok as far as the T-belts go. 

 once you get the belts on and the tensioners set ,, rotate the crank to align the III marks to double check the cam alignment, it is easy to miss it first time and important to double check both sides.

Edited February 22, 201412 yr by ruparts

Hi,
Yes I lined up the crankshaft first. so it is currently lined up with the III mark. When I removed the driver side cam seal housing for seal replacement, I slid the seal housing part off and replaced it that way, is this the cam case you are taking about? I didn't do anything more with both cams than that, just took off outer seal housing to replace seals and reinstalled. Am I ok to attach belts now in the standard way and try it out?

hi,

  yes,  if that's all you did then go ahead and install the belts,  you can put them both on, with the position you now have, 1 up,  1 down,  really doesn't matter which is which just so you have them  1-straight up and 1-straight down.  after the tensioners are set , go ahead and turn the crank   2 - 360  degree turns stopping to check cam alignment each time the crank is back to the marks,,  this is just a "making sure"  type of check ,  but is better to do it first than have to go back after you get it back together.  if you never moved the distributor it should be close enough to run and might be right on,  correct ignition timing is something to check once you have it running again and all the hoses and stuff hooked up.

Thank you! I went ahead and finished it without rotating the driver belt, so that they stayed at the 180 opposite position, and turned the crankshaft after both belts were on checking marks were still lined after and it was.. Success.