quiz answer

[Buchholz, Steven]

... that definitely was an odd problem ... I suspect that "dirt" to actually
be remnants of the teeth of the old timing belt ... they were sitting in
those grooves under compression for 5 years after all!  That is a good
caveat to those who are attempting to revive cars that have been sitting a
while.  

To be honest I really doubt that it was an effective change in radius that
was the problem, it was probably that the belt was not secure in the teeth
of the crank pulley and on occasion the belt would slip a tooth on you.  If
you think about it the fact that it is a toothed belt means that there is no
way to step anything less than one full tooth on the belt.  Not that it
matters either way ... that was certainly a difficult problem to find ...
congratulations!  I'm sure that a number of "pros" would have simply given
up on that one!

The other thing that is interesting to note is that it is good that the ECU
on the car shuts off the ignition when the timing slips too far out of
adjustment.  Eventually you might well have gotten to a situation where
valve damage would occur ...

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)
> 
> ...ok, damper ok, cog for timing belt on damper..ok, no, hold -on
> here...seems to be a lot of dirt between the teeth, but only 
> on half of the
> teeth , hmmm, just happens to be on the teeth that are 
> invisible when the
> timing is set. the dirt filled almost the entire gap between 
> the teeth. it
> was evenly spaced and did not quite allow the belt to slip. 
> in fact the
> dirt raised the belt and made it tighter. the result of the 
> raised area