poor-sh-nut

I bought an 87 944 NA a few weeks ago. I drove it home , about 150 miles. I wanted to check everything out before I started driving it daily. I posted a few days ago about how at idle I get a lot of vibration and asked for comments. Most said it was probably due to bad motor mounts. I thought it might be the balance shafts out of time. Anyway I decided to check the balance shaft timing.

I jacked the car up. First thing was to get the number one cylinder at TDC. Turned the crank until the timing mark on the camshaft sprocket centered in the little round hole. Then checked for the flywheel timing mark at the back of the engine near the speed sensor. It wasn't there.

I then turned the crank over until the timing mark on the flywheel appeared in the rectangular hole at the back of the engine. I aligned it with the timing mark. I put my screwdriver in the number one sparkplug hole to see if the piston was at TDC. It appeared to be. Then checked to see if the Timing Mark on the Camshaft Gear was visible. It wasn't. I thought this strange so I pulled the camshaft cover off to see just where the Sprocket Timing mark was. It was 180 degrees from the Timing mark on the camshaft housing.

Is this possible and would the car run. Like I said the car runs great. Just the vibration at idle. When the RPMs go above idle the car smooths out. I don't know what to do. My first thought was to remove the Timing Belt from the Cam gear, rotate the Cam Gear to where the marks on the gear and housing align, and then put the Timing Belt back on. Would this be the correct thing to do.

StoogeMoe

Remember, the camshaft turns only once per two revolutions of the crank. That's why you saw it 180 out of phase. Turn the engine around one more time til the mark lines up in the back of the engine. Then check you camshaft timing. Your marks should line up.

And please don't use a screwdriver to put down in the cylinder. Use something soft like a wood dowel.

krystar

yea don't use a screwdriver, u'll score something bad.

wooden dowel or if yer asian like me, use a chopstick :P