I'm trying to get things aligned. I'm all done except for the lower balance shaft pulley. There seem to be no witness marks on it unlike the upper balance shaft pulley. And my magic marker lines wore off the pulley so I have no clue where I am on alignment.

Someone please help me out here!

 

This is from Clark's garage, I used it when I did my belts and rollers, don't know if this will help but here it is.

Each balance shaft sprocket has two slotted grooves on the inside diameter. One of the grooves on the sprocket will slide onto a woodruff key which is inserted into a slot near the front end of the balance shaft.

On 1983 and 1984 model 944s, each balance shaft sprocket was stamped on the front with an "O" (Ober or Over) beside one of the slotted grooves and a "U" (Unter or Under) beside the other slotted groove. As one might have guessed, on the upper balance shaft, the groove with the "O" stamped beside it was installed onto the woodruff key, and on the lower balance shaft, the groove with the "U" stamped beside it was installed onto the woodruff key.

I'm not sure what prompted Porsche to do it but, on cars produced after 1984, only the slotted groove with the "O" was stamped. The groove which previously had the "U" stamped beside it, now has nothing. This is when problems started to occur with balance shaft misalignment. Mechanics who weren't previously familiar with 944s and who didn't pay close attention when they disassemble the balance shaft assemblies naturally assumed that on both shafts the "O" should go on the woodruff key. This causes the lower balance shaft to be 180 degrees out of alignment. The resulting vibration is actually worse than if there were no balance shafts at all. So, the important thing to remember is that on the later cars, the groove with the "O" goes on the woodruff key on the upper balance shaft and the groove with nothing stamped beside it goes on the woodruff key on the lower shaft.

Checking Balance Shaft Alignment

One of the most important parts of ensuring proper balance shaft alignment is ensuring the balance shaft sprockets are properly installed. Since we've already discussed proper installation, you should have no trouble installing them correctly. However, if everything is assembled, how do can you tell if the sprockets are correctly installed ?

With the balance shaft sprocket covers installed, it is impossible to actually see the woodruff key to determine proper alignment.
Each balance sprocket cover has a number of round openings and one rectangular opening. At the rectangular opening, there is a tab on the back of the cover which gets inserted into the groove that does not have the woodruff key.
If the sprocket is properly installed on the upper balance shaft, the "O" stamped on the sprocket will be visible in one of the round openings on the cover.
If the sprocket is properly installed on the lower balance shaft, the "O" stamped on the sprocket will be visible in the rectangular opening on the cover.

NOTE
The only problem with this method is that sometimes the tabs on the back of the sprocket covers get broken off. If this is the case, the only way to positively determine proper installation is to remove the sprocket retaining bolts, remove the cover plate, and slide a heavy piece of wire or a small probe into each groove to determine the location of the woodruff key.


Once you're sure the sprockets are installed correctly, the balance shafts can be checked for proper alignment as follows:
Using ENG-13, set the engine to TDC on cylinder #1.
With the engine at TDC the notch on the back lip of the upper sprocket should align with the notch on the rear timing belt cover (approximately 1 o'clock position).
For the lower balance shaft, the notch on the back lip of the sprocket should align with the raised tab on the inside of the back timing belt cover (approximately 7 o'clock position).
Sometimes you'll find that the notches on the sprockets don't line up exactly. This is not uncommon. About half the 944s I've seen don't. However, with one sprocket dead on it's alignment mark, the other sprocket should be no more than about 1/2 tooth off. If it's out of alignment by 1 tooth or more then it should be realigned.

 

You used a Sharpie to mark your balance shaft pulleys???

Search my past threads for the diagram to set things back up. The balance shafts will "relax" to the correct position that corresponds with TDC. Check the marks or remark them.

 

Yes, check the back lip of the sprocket. It has a notch in it. You can draw a line to the front and use that to align the balance shaft with the mark on the timing case.

 

the "O" is on the engine side of the bottom one.

 

After a little looking around I found a notch cut in the rear/motor side of the lower balance shaft pulley lip (apparently all these marks can be different depending on which year and model you have, thanks Porsche for making things even more difficult) as Charlie outlines in his message above from Clark's garage and as 83na944 points out. This is supposed to align with a plastic tab that sticks out from the rear plastic cover.

So I'm all set, I hope. Now it is put all the coolant and air plumbing back together and fire her up. Thanks for the help guys.