98 Camry - Will not start

[coughlj]

Got a call from my nephew last weekend that his 98 Camry – 4 cylinder overheated and asked if I could take a look. I had him start it up to see where the coolant was leaking from. It made some noise from the timing cover and also appeared to be leaking from that area. He turned it off and I checked for any leaks elsewhere but nothing. Tried starting is once more; it would turn over but not start so we towed it to my place.
I took the timing cover off and the water pump bearing was shot. Changed out the pump, tensioner, and timing belt (the car has 120k and I do not believe the timing belt was every replaced). With it all back together the car still will only crank but not fire. Pulled #1 plug and I do get spark.
There was some aluminum pieces from the pump in the timing cover area at the bottom of the crank sprocket where the Crank Position Sensor is. Could the sensor have been damaged and still have spark? No codes are being set.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks - Jeff

[500KCamry]

Originally Posted by coughlj

With it all back together the car still will only crank but not fire. Pulled #1 plug and I do get spark.
There was some aluminum pieces from the pump in the timing cover area at the bottom of the crank sprocket where the Crank Position Sensor is. Could the sensor have been damaged and still have spark? No codes are being set.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks - Jeff

Recheck the timing. With the crank pulley notch at Zero, the hole in the camshaft pulley should line up with the notch or divet on the camshaft bearing housing. You need a small mirror to look through camshaft pulley hole.

As to the bottom timing belt cover problems, the crank position sensor is likely okay, but the thing that might break from debris down there are the small fingers on the crank timing belt sprocket. The sprocket is difficult to pull without breaking these also.

[coughlj]

Originally Posted by 500KCamry

Recheck the timing. With the crank pulley notch at Zero, the hole in the camshaft pulley should line up with the notch or divet on the camshaft bearing housing. You need a small mirror to look through camshaft pulley hole.

As to the bottom timing belt cover problems, the crank position sensor is likely okay, but the thing that might break from debris down there are the small fingers on the crank timing belt sprocket. The sprocket is difficult to pull without breaking these also.

I will recheck but I thought I got it right. Just to be sure the mark looks like a drill point in about the 9:30 - 10:00 position.

I would think that even if I am off a tooth either way that the egine would fire just not run well.

What's the procedure to check the function of the crank position sensor?

Jeff

[500KCamry]

Originally Posted by coughlj

I will recheck but I thought I got it right. Just to be sure the mark looks like a drill point in about the 9:30 - 10:00 position.

Jeff

I seem to remember one of my cars having two locations, one at about 9:30 and the other at 12:00. The first time I ever changed a timing belt I used the 9:30 mark the car would crank but not fire.

If yours has more than one mark, use the one that is most counter-clockwise. I think its nearer to the 12:00 position, its for TDC or the crank shaft pulley at zero.

[Mike Gerber]

There are Toyota factory serivce manuals stickied at the top of the Camry forum over at AutomotiveForums.com. Go there and download the generation 4 manual. It should have the information on what marks to use to line everything up when replacing the timing belt.

Mike

[coughlj]

Thanks for steering me in the right direction - it was the timing. Before taking off the timing belt I did note the position of the cam sprocket (~9:30) so I thought the hole was the mark but once I timed it to the groove (~11:00) everything now runs fine. The belt probably skipped a few teeth due to the water pump bearing being so shot.

Jeff