He was talking about an earlier post where my wife bought me limegreen truck nutz. He didnt like them

 

The service limit is 5 degrees. Anything more and it's time for at least a new chain, and new gears wouldn't be a bad idea either. A 5 degree swing in ignition timing is huge - I can't imagine 10 much less 30-40.

 

i thought ***** were nuts is all.

 

This can't be true....Remove the water pump and all you'll see is the timing chain cover. He would have to remove the cover as well, and if I remember correctly (been a long time) he would need to loosen the oil pan and remove the lower pulley and depending on engine the balancer to remove the timing cover.

If your going to do all that, while you were there, it is easy to change out that timing chain.

You can't look at a timing chain and tell if it is good or bad unless it is broken. To test it, you need to check for timing chain slop. A good method was described above. If your looking at the chain you do the same thing but measure the slack.

 

I guess I need to clarify my post a tad, yes 40degs of slack, even 30 or 20 is to much.

My point was to give Country705 an idea how to determine how much slack it had, and if it could possibly last till spring as was in part the question as I understood it. That if it has anywhere near that much slack that no it wouldn't last and would likely fail at any time, if it hadn't already.

Based on what he stated he may find plenty of slack in the chain, ran fine but suddenly started backfiring, coupled with having to move the distributor to get it to start suggest a jumped tooth. May not be no, but he should check it out.

 

And as kc0rey pointed out the chain could not be seen by simply changing the water pump.
And yes if he did pull the timing cover, the chain and gears should have been replaced at that time regardless of condition. A timing set is just not that expensive especially when balanced against the labor needed to get back to it once already there.

 

Thanks you guys, I have been fighting this battle with my wife for a long time because i been saying that there is no way he would of HAD To take the timing chain out. My Father in law who i got it from said he told Alvin to replace the timing chain but when he got it back alivin said that the timing chain didnt need replaced that it looked brand new.

 

It could not hurt to replace the timing chain. Gaging the wear of the chain by looks, alone is not good practice. Everybody is telling you to check your timing and it is very easy to do. If your chain is out, by the alotted "4 - 5 degreed slop" then you should probably change it. There is absolutely nothing intimidating about this job. I found that the difficult part was extracting my broken bolts from the block. You shouldn't have that problem, since the water pump has been changed recently. It is an easy job. How are the ***** working out for ya'? Good luck!

 

Thanks for the Reply. i got the truck running by it's self but something is fishy with it. I turned it a good 5 inches from the driver's side to the passenger side and when i have the truck turned as far as it will go to the left that is when it starts. but it doesn't run right and even with the gas pedal all the way to the floor it barley wants to go and it is howling if i get it up to 20mph. Something is definatly wrong.

 

Two words................. TIMING CHAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

well guys this is sort of an update! I took my truck to a mechanic with 35+ plus years of experience he came highly recommend by several people. I told him everything and it took him a minute to respond however after looking at my truck he said that he beleives the gear on the bottom of the distributor has sheered off. Have any of you guys heard of this?. He said that he beleives he can repair this and it will fix all my problems.

 

If the distributor gear was sheared off, the engine wouldn't run at all.