Guys, I keep seeing this issue come up, so I decided to combine information from a couple threads I wrote when I first got my truck. This method worked very well for my and gives you positive confirmation that your gears are properly aligned without removing your timing cover.

A little prelude.

I purchased a replacement motor for my truck, which was complete, except that the PO remover the pump with the cover and gear still attached. I posted a thread asking if there was a way to align the gears without taking off the timing cover because I really didn't want to further dissasemble a running motor.

Someone sugested that I might be able to use a butter knife to slide between the timing cover and gear to identify the marks. Here is where I went from there.

It turns out the butter knife is the answer... sort of! After I tried to use the butter knife to "SEE" the mark and went "yeah right" I put my tired brain to work and thought...remember the old playdough and newspaper trick. Hummmm here is the answer. Set your Harmonic balancer mark to zero. Take a piece of plumbers putty (that is what I had. I supose any clay type medium will work, but it worked perfectly!) flaten it out to aproximately 1" x 3" x 1/8" thick. Spray it with wd40 on both sides and get yourself a 1" putty knife (the perverbial butter knife). There is a small notch in the top of the front cover. Using this as a guide slide both the plumbers putty and putty knife down in front of the camshaft gear and press the putty to the gear with the knife, remove it cleanly (the wd40 is the key here) you WILL get a clear imprint of the mark on the gear. If the mark is a O turn the harmonic balancer over one complete revolution and repeat the process to Identify a Y mark and you are ready to go! TDC of the compression stroke. Using care you can properly align the Y mark on your IP gear and the camshaft gear without further disassembly."

So here is an update.

After doing what I described above and just basically guessing where to set the timing gear with the housing and pump on, I decided I wanted more verification of proper alignment so here is what I did, and what you NEED to do if you want peace of mind that they are aligned right. Disassemble your pump, gear and housing into three seperate pieces. Do as described above to find the "Y" mark on your crank gear. It is fairly easy. Now find the mark on your pump gear (a visible Y on the face of the gear near the teeth), and for easier identification, file a small notch DIRECTLY above the stamped mark (the stamped mark doesnt show up as well as the one on the crank gear so look for the file mark instead) set the pump gear on the crank gear where you think the two marks will align. Now do the putty knife trick again with both gears in place. You may need to physically push the pump gear towards the putty to get a good mark as it is loose. If the mark you filed aligns with the Y on the crank gear you are good to go. If it doesn't move the pump gear one tooth at a time until they do. Once you have verified their alignment be sure not to lift up on the pump gear, and be prepared to immediately install your gear housing. Once the housing is in place and bolted, the pump gear will not lift up enough to disengage from the crank gear. You can now install your pump onto the gear. There were a number of doubters as to whether this actually works, but I got a clear as day impression of both marks, and am certain it does. It is accurate and much easier than pulling your water pump and front cover to visually align the marks.

Best of luck! Remember, none of us knows more than all of us! You can PM me with any questions, and in the future you will know not to remove your pump housing ever again unless you are breaking down the whole motor!

An update. over one year and 35k miles later my truck is running great, and I am getting ready to put a new pump injectors and beru glow plugs in it.

Like I said I keep seeing this issue come up so I decided to write a complete post on this unusual method of solving the problem, with a clear title so it could be easily searched. I just wish I had taken pictures of the process when I did it, maybe if someone else has sucess with this method they could post pictures of their progress for clarification.

Good luck,

Mac.

 

Rep to you good sir! That is a handy tip and thanks for the write up.

 

Something I do when I rebuild one of these or have the cover off is put a heavy chamfer on the teeth beside the y mark, then it is very clear next time around if someone takes the IP off the "wrong" way.

 

If all the bolt on parts are already off the motor would it just be easier to pull the timing cover off and align it normally?

 

Sure if you have already removed your water pump. This method is for someone who mistakenly removed their pump gear cover. About every 3 months or so this question pops up.

 

I mistakenly removed the housing, but I purposely removed everything off the front of the motor in order
To have space to remove my heads, they were extremely heavy for a small built guy

 

Piece of cake then. Pull the front cover to expose all four gears, there are alignment marks on all four gears just mesh them and you are good to go. There is a diagram of which marks to align on which gears floating around on here somewhere. I will try to find it for you. Once you have the timing gear aligned, be ready to put the cover on immediately. The gear won't lift up enough to disengage once it is in place.

 

This is one. I think the chilton manual has a better picture. Y's go with Y's dots go with dots.




Align the mark on the balancer to this "O"

Good luck.

Mac.

 

Great write up Mac. I still have to do mine.

Chet

 

Thanks Chet,

I really doesn't take long this way, The second time I did it (after losing sleep like the write up says), I'd say from start to finish it took me about an hour and a half.

 

hey guys, not sure if this tool can do the job or not. but I just bought one and will post back on how well it works once it arrives:

Xcsource 7mm USB Endoscope Borescope Inspection Video Camera Waterproof | eBay

you hook it into a computer or laptop with a usb port and can snake the camera into a tight spot and look at it on a screen. Was very cheap so not sure how well it will work, you know what they say... you get what you pay for... but sometimes it can be a good deal.

I got the 7meter long one(23ft)... plenty of length to go from my XP machine on my work bench to under the hood of whatever im workin on

 

Hey
jakegaisser How did it work?

 

It worked but not without some frustration. The main issue is lighting,

I got the truck out of the garage on a clear bright day and I could see pretty good.

The cameras built in light is not really enough to see what you are doing in a dark place, looks like the blair witch project at best.

If you needed to use it in a dark place then plan on using a secondary light, otherwise the camera image is not good.

with good lighting the camera works excellent.

EDIT: also as far as controlling where the camera points, its just on a cord... so you kinda gotta dangle it and bend the cord to get it pointed where you need it, that or tape it to a wire coat hanger or something, it easy for the camera to get sideways or upside down and it can get a little disorienting.