So I collected my "new" 90 at a southern California port about three weeks ago and drove it the 550 miles or so to Tucson, AZ. The vehicle is in excellent condition and had received a full service in the UK, including timing belt, prior to shipment, so I wasn't too concerned about any problems. The trip went well, but when I pulled into the driveway that's when I noticed that I was leaking something from the front of the engine. In the dark I initially assumed it was coolant, but upon further investigation (with my nose) I found that it was diesel fuel. Huh?
I did the usual online searches and found that diesel will leak from the bottom of the front cover if the forward seal on the injector pump has failed. That sounded just like my situation, so I set about securing the needed parts. I also learned that diesel fuel in the timing case will quickly ruin a timing belt, so I went ahead and ordered all of those parts as well, even though I knew the timing belt only had about 600 miles on it.
Upon cracking open the front end, I was confronted with the horror show that can be seen in the photo below. I was very close to disaster. The belt was largely destroyed, and the case was filled with debris, with long strings of disintegrated timing belt wrapped around everything and jammed behind the pulleys and gears. What a mess.
So putting in a new injector pump seal and timing components is fairly straightforward if you plan ahead and take it methodically. I've done timing belts and chains before, but never on a diesel, but it looks like just a few more steps are required related to the injection timing. No sweat. Read the instructions carefully, plan the job, and work methodically. Using one of those timing tool sets from RN, I inserted the pin in the flywheel housing and turned the crank until it engaged in the flywheel's slot. That's when I got stumped. If you look below at the second photo, you'll see a drawing from the 300tdi shop manual. The drawing indicates where the timing marks on the crankshaft and the cam gear pulley should be located when the timing pin is engaged and the No. 1 cylinder is at top dead center. The woodruff key on the crank should be positioned at 12:00, and the mark on the cam gear should be pointing at the arrow on the casing at about 8:00. Unexplainably, to me anyway, my marks aren't anywhere near those points. See the marked up drawing for where my marks land...the woodruff key on the crank is at 3:00 and the timing mark on the cam gear pulley is at 10:00. I have checked and rechecked this a dozen times...when the flywheel pin engages, this is where the marks are located.
How could this be? How could the engine even run like this? I can see how someone could have possibly put the cam gear pulley on incorrectly (it's possible, I guess, though it would take some effort). But the location of the crank key isn't something I can explain. Can anyone else? And of course the next question...what should I do? What am I missing?
I did the usual online searches and found that diesel will leak from the bottom of the front cover if the forward seal on the injector pump has failed. That sounded just like my situation, so I set about securing the needed parts. I also learned that diesel fuel in the timing case will quickly ruin a timing belt, so I went ahead and ordered all of those parts as well, even though I knew the timing belt only had about 600 miles on it.
Upon cracking open the front end, I was confronted with the horror show that can be seen in the photo below. I was very close to disaster. The belt was largely destroyed, and the case was filled with debris, with long strings of disintegrated timing belt wrapped around everything and jammed behind the pulleys and gears. What a mess.
So putting in a new injector pump seal and timing components is fairly straightforward if you plan ahead and take it methodically. I've done timing belts and chains before, but never on a diesel, but it looks like just a few more steps are required related to the injection timing. No sweat. Read the instructions carefully, plan the job, and work methodically. Using one of those timing tool sets from RN, I inserted the pin in the flywheel housing and turned the crank until it engaged in the flywheel's slot. That's when I got stumped. If you look below at the second photo, you'll see a drawing from the 300tdi shop manual. The drawing indicates where the timing marks on the crankshaft and the cam gear pulley should be located when the timing pin is engaged and the No. 1 cylinder is at top dead center. The woodruff key on the crank should be positioned at 12:00, and the mark on the cam gear should be pointing at the arrow on the casing at about 8:00. Unexplainably, to me anyway, my marks aren't anywhere near those points. See the marked up drawing for where my marks land...the woodruff key on the crank is at 3:00 and the timing mark on the cam gear pulley is at 10:00. I have checked and rechecked this a dozen times...when the flywheel pin engages, this is where the marks are located.
How could this be? How could the engine even run like this? I can see how someone could have possibly put the cam gear pulley on incorrectly (it's possible, I guess, though it would take some effort). But the location of the crank key isn't something I can explain. Can anyone else? And of course the next question...what should I do? What am I missing?