In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 51 of 1154
Fixing the oil leak (day 1):
Hoo boy. Let's just say that things did not go according to plan.
Not that I really had a plan, per say. And I did go into this imagining the worst, so it's not as bad as it could have been at least......
So yesterday I bought a cheap ratchet set at at the car place. Don't ever buy a cheap ratchet set (details below). I also bought a harmonic balancer puller. Don't buy a cheap one of those either (details below).
Pulled off my driver side tire. Unplugged the battery. Pulled the alternator belt, then the alternator and a few mounting brackets and the top plastic housing (over the timing belt). So far, so good.
The goddamned harmonic balancer is the bane of my existance.
Used a backwoods trick to pull off the bolt using a ratchet wedged up against the body and bumped the ignition. Broke cheap ratchet. Tried again with my Craftsman ratchet, no problem.
Tried pulling off some smaller bolts with an extender bit attached from cheap ratchet set. This time it broke clean off with the torque from my bare hands. Apparently they make tools out of aluminum in China.
Managed to scrape together the remaining necessary tools I'd need from all the misc crap I've collected over the years in my garage. Should be good...
Harmonic Balancer will not budge. Video made it look easy to pull by hand. Opened up my Harmonic Balancer kit and instantly regreted doing so. This "Universal" kit doesn't have bolts small enough. Manage to find some bolts that fit in my garage, but they're super long and I have to put a ton of nuts and washers on each of them to pull it. Pulling becomes extraordinarily hard and that's when I realize because the bolts were so damn long they pressed up against the body and were bending as the balancer was being pulled. Needed to take a hacksaw to them to remove them in the 95 degree sun. Good times. (Also, I won't be able to remove Balancer with this method again if necessary because I don't have any more matching bolts).
yada yada yada...
Get to the oil pump finally. Sure enough, seal was brittle and cracked just like I thought it would be. That's a good sign. Remove it, clean everything, put some sealant on and place the new seal, and remove the seal in the shaft and replace it.
Put everything back together except for a few mounting brackets and the alternator.
Bad news 1: Timing belt assembly lines I painted on gears don't match up where they should and I have no idea why or how to fix this. Shit. Not exactly sure why this is important, but I'm sure it must be since both videos mention it. Neither video mentions what to do if you have this problem because theirs (of course) worked just perfectly.
Bad news 2: Smaller belt from the rear of the Harmonic Balancer to (I believe) the Power Steering just slightly makes contact with the plastic housing over the oil pump. Shit.
Bad news 3: When tightening the 7 bolts on the oil pump cover, I must have given far too much torque to one of them and the head snapped off. I'm hoping that I'm right in thinking that it was designed the way it was to not fail if only 6 of them were put back. It's a pretty small surface area and the 6 that are in place look as though they should hold.
Car fires up just fine, but it's obvious the belts are not operating as designed and if I left the car in this state I'd probably wreck it just driving a few miles.
The good news: I fixed the oil leak. Had the car on and off for about 4 minutes for troubleshooting purposes and not a single drop of oil. Before I did this work I'd have a pool of oil on the ground just from firing it up.
The bad news: I'm going to have to remove that Harmonic Balancer again to get anything done tomorrow. I really don't have any idea what I'm doing at this point since the videos on youtube worked under the assumption that everything should run smoothly when putting everything back together, which tot
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Weather site says it is suppose to dry out for the next week. Hoping I won't need a jacket tomorrow. Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! if it happens. It's only almost the middle of flamin' July.
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Your BIL knows cars? Ask for help!
"Pulled off my driver side tire."
With car on jackstand rather than tire jack for safety? (by experience)
"Tried pulling off some smaller bolts with an extender bit attached from cheap ratchet set."
Next time, spray all nuts, screws or bolts you're trying to undo with WD40, or drip any kind of oil on them (from your oil dipstick, or canola oil from home or even olive oil) about a day ahead of time. Anything that would otherwise be frozen and lead to broken tools and knuckle-busting will come off like a dream. (by experience)
"Manage to find some bolts that fit in my garage, but they're super long" "(Also, I won't be able to remove Balancer with this method again if necessary because I don't have any more matching bolts.)"
Auto Zone or other place should be able to match the originals. I think these are structural parts that need appropriate strength. (by experience)
"Timing belt assembly lines I painted on gears don't match up where they should and I have no idea why or how to fix this."
I THINK you *SHOULD* be able to turn the gears by hand with some leverage with no belts on and the car in neutral, to make the marks line up. (iirc, I've seen it done a long, long time ago.)
"Smaller belt from the rear of the Harmonic Balancer to (I believe) the Power Steering just slightly makes contact with the plastic housing over the oil pump."
Plastic housing - cosmetic or structural? If cosmetic, perhaps some filing will temporarily fix it.
"When tightening the 7 bolts on the oil pump cover, I must have given far too much torque to one of them and the head snapped off."
This I believe is an important sealing surface. You could probably get away with it for a while, but it might leak over time. Get an easy-out tool to extract the broken-off bolt and replace the bolt. Next time - insert each bolt by hand till finger tight (good for all bolts, screws, and nuts; you will never cross-thread them or put a metric on a standard or the other way around, if you do them up to finger-tight by hand). Snug up the bolts (or nuts or screws) a bit at a time, going by more or less opposites (that way you won't warp the piece by putting too much pressure on one spot). Only go good and tight, not as far as you can possibly manage (except for head gaskets). (by experience)
GREAT JOB so far and I hope the finishing details go smoothly!
SECOND is a troll because it constantly misrepresents what people post, fails to address their actual positions, and resorts to personal attacks when its brain isn't working (which is most of the time).
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
Your BIL knows cars? Ask for help!
It's my brother's BIL, and he works 2 jobs and has 4 kids. I think getting him to come over here now that my car won't move would be harder than pulling teeth. Plus, he lives about 1 1/2 hours from me. :(
Quote:
"Pulled off my driver side tire."
With car on jackstand rather than tire jack for safety? (by experience)
All I have is the scissor lift from my trunk. Not looking to spend much here. I put a block under it, the parking break is on and I'm on a flat surface. It didn't budge an inch on me yesterday.
Quote:
"Tried pulling off some smaller bolts with an extender bit attached from cheap ratchet set."
Next time, spray all nuts, screws or bolts you're trying to undo with WD40, or drip any kind of oil on them (from your oil dipstick, or canola oil from home or even olive oil) about a day ahead of time. Anything that would otherwise be frozen and lead to broken tools and knuckle-busting will come off like a dream. (by experience)
Noted. No new bolts to remove at this point. Just going to have to take a lot apart again that I already took apart yesterday.
It really was a piece of shit set from China though. I'll admit that breaking the wrench was my fault using the ratchet in a non-approved by anyone manner. I thought I probably wouldn't take the set in for my money back when that happened, but when I broke the extender bit turning a 10mm bolt holding the top plastic housing with my bare hands, I knew it was just a crap set. That's what you get when you buy a 56 pc. ratchet set for 20% off $12.99. I didn't get it at Harbor Freight, but it wouldn't surprise me if they had the same kit.
Quote:
"Manage to find some bolts that fit in my garage, but they're super long" "(Also, I won't be able to remove Balancer with this method again if necessary because I don't have any more matching bolts.)"
Auto Zone or other place should be able to match the originals. I think these are structural parts that need appropriate strength. (by experience)
Hopefully Advance Auto Parts does. That's where I got the kit and it's about a mile and 1/2 away from me. I'm going to be walking there today if I can't get it off by hand.
Quote:
"Timing belt assembly lines I painted on gears don't match up where they should and I have no idea why or how to fix this."
I THINK you *SHOULD* be able to turn the gears by hand with some leverage with no belts on and the car in neutral, to make the marks line up. (iirc, I've seen it done a long, long time ago.)
Well.... that makes sense. Now that I think about it, I probably put them out of alignment when I tightened the bolt on the Harmonic Balancer that I had so much problems taking off in the first place. Didn't even occur to me until I read your reply here that any turning that was done on that pulley was without the timing belt on so there is no way they would have maintained alignment if I moved it.
Quote:
"Smaller belt from the rear of the Harmonic Balancer to (I believe) the Power Steering just slightly makes contact with the plastic housing over the oil pump."
Plastic housing - cosmetic or structural? If cosmetic, perhaps some filing will temporarily fix it.
Neither? It's not structural, but protection from the elements, I'm sure. It's part of a 2 part plasting housing over the entire timing belt and power steering assembly on the "passenger side" of the engine where all the sprockets, pulleys and tensioners are. Tons of oil in there because of the leak over time, but nary a speck of dust otherwise.
I've got to remove it again to get to the timing belt, so I'm just going to have to make sure I do a better job of making sure it's on right. I'm positive this wasn't happening before or that belt would have frayed and broke a long time ago.
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It hit around 80F today. So nice. 
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"It's my brother's BIL, and he works 2 jobs and has 4 kids. I think getting him to come over here now that my car won't move would be harder than pulling teeth. Plus, he lives about 1 1/2 hours from me. :( "
DRAT!
"I put a block under it, the parking break is on and I'm on a flat surface. It didn't budge an inch on me yesterday."
Oh, a block works well, too. I've seen a tire jack tip and a car roll away off it. Not fun. Plus I like to feel safe under a car. Out of curiosity, do you know where the support points are on your car?
"Hopefully Advance Auto Parts does. That's where I got the kit and it's about a mile and 1/2 away from me. I'm going to be walking there today if I can't get it off by hand."
I feel for you. Do I know THAT drill! Maybe call first with make, model, year, part description. If they don't have it, perhaps they can order it, or tell you who has it. (I presume they come as a set.)
"Well.... that makes sense."
Gosh I hope so! My recollection is, generally, if you're turning a gear, you're turning what it's attached to. Some gears will literally turn the engine (which is why it could help to put it in neutral, so turning engine isn't also trying to turn the wheels).
"I've got to remove it again to get to the timing belt, so I'm just going to have to make sure I do a better job of making sure it's on right. I'm positive this wasn't happening before or that belt would have frayed and broke a long time ago."
It's not ideal to start 'modifying' parts - but I've had a lot of emergency roadside repairs that did just that. If you have to to get it moving ...
"Hopefully I can get by without it and the two outside bolts will maintain enough pressure."
Fingers crossed! FWIW I ran around on 3 lug nuts out of 4 because when I got new tires, the (bozos) just threw the nut into the pneumatic wrench and powered it on - they never noticed they cross-threaded it. So when I had a flat, not only was it a b!#@h to get the nut off (I had help from a very kind person), but the lug bolt was ruined, and I didn't have time to get a new one right away. It was OK.
GOOD LUCK Jack!!
SECOND is a troll because it constantly misrepresents what people post, fails to address their actual positions, and resorts to personal attacks when its brain isn't working (which is most of the time).
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Day 2:
Not so kind... Although in the end the car does run.
I managed to find two more bolts that fit the Harmonic Balancer and managed to position it in a way that I didn't break them and they would be reusable with the kit if I need them again.
Spent about 3 hours messing with the timing with no luck. Cam sprocket seems to be "fighting" with me and will be really hard to turn, until it isn't and it kind of "flies" about 25 degrees and stops. Extremely tricky to try to get it lined up because of this, and I don't think it's supposed to do that. I can't find any videos online about it though. It may be a serious engine problem.
At one point the car wouldn't start and I thought I toasted it. Made some adjustments and it fired up again. All the while, the check engine light is on which was really worrisome.
Second day in the full brutal hot sun and I was starting to feel a little sick. I'd had enough and decided that this is as good as it was going to get so put it all back together.
2nd belt that was rubbing doesn't rub anymore, so there's that.
Absolutely everything fought me at every step. Even the mounting brackets I had to take off before and just after taking off the alternator did not want to line up and took forever to set. Speaking of the alternator, it took me about an hour to position everything right so the alternator belt wasn't screeching wildly.
Once everything was back in place the check engine light came off. I'm guessing not having the alternator attached tripped it maybe?
Drove the car about a mile and although it's louder than it used to be it seems to run fine. Noise dies down as gas pedal is down. I'm going to have to drive it more today to see if it's at all reliable now. Not looking forward to being on the expressway with no cell phone.
There still seems to be a minor oil leak, but I have no idea where it's coming from. It looks to be about 1/100th of what it was before, so maybe all of this will be worth it if the car doesn't blow up on me now.
I might have to bite the bullet and take it to a pro. :(
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
"It's my brother's BIL, and he works 2 jobs and has 4 kids. I think getting him to come over here now that my car won't move would be harder than pulling teeth. Plus, he lives about 1 1/2 hours from me. :( "
DRAT!
Yeah... That's why I went ahead and just did it on my own. Just seeing my bro and my niece has been a hassle recently since he got a part time job, and trying to co-ordinate something with his BIL seemed to be an effort in futility. One way or another I want to know by the end of August if I have to buy a new car or I can invest money in this one to get it safe for winter driving and I ran out of time to wait for him. Hopefully now though I can get him to look at the current issues and tell me if he thinks I'm okay or not.
Quote:
"I put a block under it, the parking break is on and I'm on a flat surface. It didn't budge an inch on me yesterday."
Oh, a block works well, too. I've seen a tire jack tip and a car roll away off it. Not fun. Plus I like to feel safe under a car. Out of curiosity, do you know where the support points are on your car?
I don't. The work is done now though, and I made sure to shake the car around a bunch before I got underneath it. Earthquakes are pretty out of the ordinary around these parts, so I think I was being reasonably safe here.
Quote:
"Hopefully Advance Auto Parts does. That's where I got the kit and it's about a mile and 1/2 away from me. I'm going to be walking there today if I can't get it off by hand."
I feel for you. Do I know THAT drill! Maybe call first with make, model, year, part description. If they don't have it, perhaps they can order it, or tell you who has it. (I presume they come as a set.)
I was able to rig it up to work again with new bolts and managed to do it smart this time so I could reuse them if I needed to. The only question at this point is do I try to press my luck and return the thing along with the ratchet set that broke since I was actually able to use it.
Quote:
"Well.... that makes sense."
Gosh I hope so! My recollection is, generally, if you're turning a gear, you're turning what it's attached to. Some gears will literally turn the engine (which is why it could help to put it in neutral, so turning engine isn't also trying to turn the wheels).
See the above post. Not sure if I did this right and it might be the "problem".
Quote:
"I've got to remove it again to get to the timing belt, so I'm just going to have to make sure I do a better job of making sure it's on right. I'm positive this wasn't happening before or that belt would have frayed and broke a long time ago."
It's not ideal to start 'modifying' parts - but I've had a lot of emergency roadside repairs that did just that. If you have to to get it moving ...
See above. I did it right this time and there is no rubbing. There is a "groove" in the cover now though that didn't used to be there from when the belt was rubbing though, so it's a good thing I redid everything.
Quote:
"Hopefully I can get by without it and the two outside bolts will maintain enough pressure."
Fingers crossed! FWIW I ran around on 3 lug nuts out of 4 because when I got new tires, the (bozos) just threw the nut into the pneumatic wrench and powered it on - they never noticed they cross-threaded it. So when I had a flat, not only was it a b!#@h to get the nut off (I had help from a very kind person), but the lug bolt was ruined, and I didn't have time to get a new one right away. It was OK.
Funny you mention that. I'm already running on 4 of 5 bolts on one of my tires when I snapped one off a few years ago when changing a tire (I have a habit of breaking things with my bare hands that shouldn't be easy to break). I researched it at the time and 4 out of 5 bolts is
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So a guy my stepdad knew that he trusted with cars quoted me $275 to fix the timing if I need it. To the lay person, that might seem a bit expensive, but really I'd imagine that's quite a bit cheaper than I'm going to get quoted elsewhere. Honestly, 90% of the total job I did replacing that seal was getting down to the timing belt and removing it. You've got to remove the alternator/alternator belt, several mounting brackets, several plastic housings, the harmonic balancer and the power steering belt before you can even get down to the timing belt and have access to rotate the camshaft and crankshaft. At that point you're just 7 bolts away from removing and replacing the oil pump seal.
So $275 doesn't actually sound all that bad when you consider that my two quotes for replacing the seal were $500 and $600 before I did any work myself.
What I didn't really care for was the quote he gave me for doing the breaks. He said if I bought the parts he'd do it for $75 bucks. It's been ages since I had a break job done, so maybe that's a deal in 2018, but that seems rather high to me... especially considering while doing the timing job he already has one of the tires off and has full access to the passenger side pads.
I'm going to wait until after I work to call the guy back I really don't want to pay that much to have this part of the job done, but if I can't get it right myself I need to have it fixed. I'm wondering if I can ask him what the price would be if I got the car down there and stripped it down to the timing belt and he just fixed that for me and I put it back together myself.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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I don't have any advice, but it does sound to me like the timing is off, as you suspect. I hope it gets fixed soon, SIX!
******
Hubby's surgery went well, surgeon says "not cancer" (but of course, you always wait for the pathologist to weigh in!) so of course he's relieved but is on steroids and is very, very grumpy. Not too surprisingly, so am I! TTUL
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Pity would be no more,
If we did not MAKE men poor - William Blake
As long as you insist that everything is the Republicans'/ Democrats' fault, then you fail to grasp the REAL problem with American politics.
America is an oligarchy http://www.fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?tid=57876
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