I been told that the timing chain has broken and that is why my 92 F150 won't start. How hard is it to change? And could I do it my self or should I have a shop do it.

 

Are you in a hurry? That would be the only reason I wouldn't do it. Are comfortable working on it?

I replaced my lower intake manifold gasket so I did the timing set at the same time. I had 220,000 miles so i figured it couldn't hurt...

It's mostly taking off or moving everything that will be in your way. It's not super hard, there will be some tough spots. Don't trust everything the books say. I killed a perferctly good oil pan gasket because the timing cover gasket kit and the book said to cut the section out of the pan where the timing cover goes. Fine if it was oem, but mine was a nice blue silicone and steel. That was the biggest pain. I had to jack the engine up to get the oil pan down far enough to replace the gasket. Took an extra 2 or 3 days.

The actual timing set was easy. You will need a big breaker bar for the main crank. It's about 100ftlbs. Put the timing seal in before you install the cover. 5 mins vs 2 hrs. A clamp type seal puller (2 piece). And a couple sizes of gear pullers.

My wife still refers to that as 'the time I took everything out of the truck.' Good times...

There are lots of people here that helped when I did mine.

 

Thanks I do have a friend that is willing to help so I guess I'll be trying it very soon.

 

What makes them think it is a timing chain, I did not see anywhere in your other thread that even talked about a timing chain?
Did you try the test light at the coil as suggested in the other thread?
Could be the pick-up coil in the distributor.

If it were the timing chain you would get a lot of backfiring.

 

This is more of a question. Can you attatch a timing light and crank the engine and see if the timing is in spec? If the chain had jumped a tooth on the sprocket would the timing be way off with the light.

 

I do not think so as you are not ready to see the flash and the mark when it occurs.

Pull the plugs and put a compression gauge on it and if the compression is with in specification then the chain is OK.

I hope you were not trying to ask packerfan1956 these questions, if so sorry.

 

if the chain were broken, it probably wouldn't even do that.

If the timing chain slipped a tooth, you would definitely be able to see that with a timing light.

 

It's very rare for timing chains to break. I personally have never seen one do it, though I've seen them loose enough to wear a hole in the timing cover!! They will get really loose and noisy for a long time, and you'll notice performance loss. But it'll make so much noise rattling aroung in there you are bound to notice it.

 

I presume that we're talking about a V8.

While it is uncommon for the chain to fail, it is quite common for the frenolic gears to fail. Sometimes this is mearly a slip of a tooth or two and manafests as poor performance do to bad basic timing.

Other times it is a total failure which can usually be determined by the fact that the distributor no longer turns when cranking.

 

It did back fire the last time it started. I must have forgotten to say that. Also had the old distributer cap looked at and it was missing on 2 of the 8 plugs. I do have realkly good spart that is why my boss said that it was the timing chain when hhe stopped ove at the house Friday. He also checked alot of other things and said it was the timing chain.

 

My truck has a nylon chain so if it jumped it broke the gear.it is a 1992 F150 with a 302 V8