yardpro

i just installed the pktensioner and new cam gears... just need to check my thinking on an issue i was having.

i installed new cam gears, I know the pass. side was installed in the exact same postion, as i traced the holes in the gear on the plastic housing behind the gear..

the drivers side, i noted the position of the wudruff key in the notch in the old cam gear (used bolts in the distributor holes to maintain the position of the gear while removing the center bolt....

so.. after installing the new water pump, belt, pktensioner and gears, i checked everything before releasing the tension on the tensioner... all good. I used the 32v tool to set the timing at the 45 deg notch.

now after pulling the pin and tensioning the belt, i rotated the crank through a few revolutions and now both sides are about 3-4 degrees retarded.. here is my problem.. I have no more adjustent on the gears, I have turned the camshaft as far as it will go in the gear, and all i can get is 3-4 deg retarded..

so now i have relocked the flywheel in the 45 deg, and have released the belt tension and am getting ready to move the belt one tooth on each gear..
It seems like this should put me in the money on the timing, as this will allow the gear to me more centered in it's adjustment range...

i believe that since the 32v tool aligns with the camshaft itself, it's reading is true to the camshaft position, regardless of the gear position, is this correct?..

does this make sense?

Landseer

You are close enough, it seems, to reposition at TDC.

Then, you can determine if its a tooth off by eyeballing the notches at the back of the gears vs. the alignment marks on the backing plates.

Then, you can use 32V'r at O instead of 45.


What's missing from your detailed write up is the photo of the job at TDC to verify where it was to start.

yardpro

i had my wife help me and we moved the belt one tooth on both gears.. now i am able to adjust the cams to get the 32v to read dead on at tdc... the problem before was that i was running out of adjustment with the gears. I could only get them both to about 3deg retarded. now that i moved each gear one tooth on the belt i have not only enough adjustment to get the 32v dead on, i can go in either direction of 0 deg.

I may be missing something, but since the 32v bolts directly to the cam and has no adjustments as long as it reads 0deg and the crank is at 0deg, they are good to go irrespective of the gear position...

that being said, the notches on the gears line up as they should, and the one gear i marked lines up with the marks, so i am thinking that everything is honkey dory.....yes?

blown 87

I have yet to see the notches on the cam gears line up with the marks and the cams be degreed correctly.

Almost always at least a half a tooth off from the notches when set at the proper settings.

Landseer

Agreed, or just a bit less, but about that much.
Was just concerned his original datum was off a bit.

Regarding 32V'r v. dial indicator, am playing catch-up and will need to verify on my own with data at some point.

Regarding 32V'r, refer to the instructions for the estimations of best setting, but sounds like you are close, can always come back with dial or Porken unit or both at a later date.

yardpro

they are in the same location as they were when i began, looking at the cam gear, the very right hand side of the cam gear notch is under the V on the head.

so i guess my question is... the porken 32vr tool is the one you go by... not really as much by the cam gear itself...

from what i can see, even if the cam gears were way out of wac, as long as the 32v,r tool lines up you are good to go since it aligns directly with the camshaft, and has no adjustments...

blown 87

I have never seen one that when set up correctly was at the end of the adjustment range on the cam gear, so something is not right if you are at the end of the range and the marks line up perfectly.
(I could be wrong, they could be perfect, but you are not going to know until you get a dial indicator on the lifter AFTER you have checked the harmonic balancer to be right.)

Here is a picture of when I checke mine out before I tore it down, just to see how far out the cams were, and they were out a bunch due to some one changing the gears at some point.

yardpro

i think that the reason i ran out adjustment was that after i put the belt on, they were both one tooth off on the belt, once i moved the gears one tooth on the belt they i was able to get them dialed in.

blown 87

Ok, sounds like that might have been a problem.

yardpro

thanks for the input....

just being cautious since there was an issue at first....

Lizard928

Steven,

do the adjustments and settings at TDC not 45 deg.
bank 5-8 set to zero,
bank 1-4 set to -2 deg.

yardpro

thanks Colin.
i got them close at 45, then zeroed them in at o deg.

i thought that the -2deg was to compensate for the tensioner pulling on the belt, since i have the pktensioner and have it tensioned, do i still need to set the 1-4 bank at -2deg?

thanks for the gears, i'll be tracking thier wear.. i'm sending you the old ones tuesday..

also i had a frustrating time setting the 0deg.... i thought i had them set and rotated them through a few times and both banks went to -3deg ish... reset them, and rotated them through a few times and then it seemed to "hold" it's position.

Bilal928S4

I have a 1990 S4 and will be doing this procedure with my t-belt replacement. Do I also do the same as above?
Thanks