89 SOHC Timing Belt Question?

[Mobjak]

OK,

Making progress, head bolted down securely and moving on to the timing belt.

Ordered new one from local Chrysler dealership and used VIN to order. It seems way too tight trying to install.

I have had to remove the tensioner pully to even get it installed.

I checked it against the old belt, tooth spacing seems correct, length appears correct.

There is one difference, the shape of the new belt tooth is curved or rounded. Old belt is more of a flat tooth? With the new belt, the trough or low part of the belt (between the teeth) does not touch the pully?

Does all this seem ok?

I got the belt on the car but without the tensioner. Trying to figure out how to pull the belt to one side to install the tensioner?

Any tips?

TIA

[Guest TC Toad]

STOP!! You have the wrong timing belt: You will need to obtain a timing belt which has square teeth and not rounded. The square tooth belts were used on 1989 and older 2.2L engines. The rounded tooth belts were used on common block 2.2L engines and these were produced I believe after 1990. The two belts are not interchangeable unless you replace the crank, cam and intermediate shaft sprocket.

[Mobjak]

Thanks TC Toad,

What ever happened to quality assuarance?@!#$!#

Time to return that new belt.

One thing I have notice is that the old belt looks to be in very good condition, and I am thinking it has been replaced.

Old Belt

Does the part number look like a replacement?

And tensioner pully... old and new

Again, does the Germany/part number look OEM or replacement?

Thanks for any help you can provide.

BTW... lost out on my third 89 service manual on Ebay...

[Guest TC Toad]

Don't go by looks on the belt...Change it no matter what, cheap insurance. Because you don't know when it was changed last. Even if it looks fairly new...change it. As far as the tensioner pulley, the metal one with the german bearing looks to be OEM. The plastic pulley tensioner looks like the ones that come in a Gates brand timing belt replacement kit. I'm not fond of the plastic pulleys. I want a metal pulley in there, tightening my belt. I'm sure the plastic would work fine. I just have never used them. Hope this helps

[Guest TC Toad]

When getting parts for your TC try using a 1987 Dodge Daytona with a 2.2L Turbo. Our TC's were based on this car.. and even though your TC is a 1989 it probably has an engine produced in 1987 or 1988.. Due to the time frame of shipping the shortened chassis to Italy, having the body and interior installed then shipped back to the US for final assembly. Sometimes it took along time for a complete build, more so for the 1989 models, which were the first ones built.

[Mobjak]

Thanks TC Toad,

It looks like the valve cover gasket won't work either. The one I purchased is for the valve cover with a slot along the edge to hold the gasket in place with little wings along the edge.

I will try the '87 Daytona route and see if that helps.

TIA

[Guest LouZ]

Hey MobjaK,

Like in everything else, there are good and other partsmen. I have a NAPA store in town, and surrounding there is an Allied Aoto Parts, and 1 more that I can't remember. When I first went to these guys they all thought they would be smart and tried to do the change over thing to LeBaron. When I got them to actually look up "Chrysler Maserati" or Chrysler TC instead of Town & Country. All missmatches stopped. Every one of the parts books that we looked thru together suddenly had the exact car listed. The Chrysler Parts man I had (Dealer went out of business) was also good at sifting thru all the listings in the computer and always found me what I needed on the first try. Now they understand, and are all proud to find what I need, and I get a lot of "Hey have you seen this guys Maserati.? Yeah, he's got 3 of them".. Good Luck, Lou

[Guest d_voitel]

I guess I've been pretty fortunate getting parts so far. As it turns out, there's a Chrysler dealership about 15 miles from home and when I need parts, they're great at filling the missing information. The first thing they want is the VIN number. The rest is easy. When I first went in, they were able to provide a copy of the build sheet for the TC I purchased. They also have a mechanic in house who worked on TC's when they were new.

We had some aging problems with our '92 Imperial as well and they fixed that up as well. They seem to have some resources the novices don't have.

Good luck, Duane

[Mobjak]

Thank you very much TC Toad,

The timing belt from the '87 Daytona worked like a charm!

Everything but the valve cover gasket has gone pretty well.

I looked at the '87 Daytona valve cover gasket diagram at the dealer and it looks like it is the wrong one. The one they showed was a three piece gasket with no rubber piece for the one end of the head. The exploded diagram at the dealer also showed a baffle the full length of the head, which mine does not have.

Any suggestions?

VIN gasket does not fit.

87 Daytona gasket looks like it won't work since it only has three pieces not four.

TIA

[Bill Reichert]

I think some of the gasket sets are a combo for turbo and non turbo. If the kit has two long cork pieces, just throw those away.

You use the two end pieces and rtv sealant on the long part of the valve cover.