Well, it happened. Lost the timing belt in the Camry on the way home from work.
I called a buddy with a truck and he came and pulled me home. I tore into it as soon as work was over today.
All in all, wasn't terrible. There's such little space between the engine and the fender well! My Haynes manual recommends a method using 2 screwdrivers to get the dreaded pully bolt off. This was a joke. Maybe others have had success using this method.
I ended up using the controversial "starter bump" method. It actually worked flawlessly. There were 4 bolts missing throughout the job; a gift from the previous owner, or some awful mechanic somewhere. Interestingly, the timing belt didn't snap. The teeth around the crank pulley were sheared off cleanly. I was panicked that the cam had siezed, but found that it was freely moving.
It took a while, but I finally got the belt on and timed. I pulled it through 2 complete cycles manually and looked pretty lined up. After reassembly, it started right up! The idle was super-smooth. It was only when I went for the first test drive that I realized something was wrong: NO POWER beyond about 1500 RPMs. Top speed in any gear was 40 mph.
Very strange; it actually ran AWESOME, but just had zero power. My only conclusion was that I had made a mistake and was off a tooth.
I had no choice but to pull back in the garage and partially tear down. I used a small mirror to view inside the inspection window when the crank was set at TDC. NOOOOO!!!!
Off one tooth. I guess it found a little extra slack and pulled it out.
Such a fun job, worth doing twice! At least the second time, I only had to take off the top timing cover. Advanced the timing by one tooth and buttoned it back up. ZOOM! Runs like a champ!
Belt was $22 at O'Reilly's.
Timing Belt FAIL!
It is very easy to get it one tooth off, the trick is to turn the cam one tooth clockwise and put on the belt, it "slips" back when you're doing it and you'll be bang on.
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