92 legacy won't start after big bump

[diggler1971]

This is my 16 year old son's car. He went thru and intersection that grades down on both sides of the cross street to fast, and I guess the car went a little "Dukes of Hazard". He heard a scrape at the time and the car just died. I think it was a pretty harsh impact. Since then the motor will turn over, but not hitting a lick. That is, not even trying to start, like it would be if you had no plugs installed. I don't see any serious scrapes under the car, but generically I thought that maybe he yanked/cut a wire that cut the ignition system. But now I have had a day to look at it and I'm sort of confused now. I have good bright blue spark at the plugs. Fuel pumping after the filter and wet plugs after cranking. I have replaced with known good (from our parts car) the coil pack, igniter, and cam position sensor. I have tried putting a little ether in the intake, still nuthin. It appears that I have fire, fuel and air, but no start. I'm startin to lean toward a timing issue (ie jumped time). Although the timing belt is only about 6 months old and should not be worn to the point of jumpin time because of wear. I took the two side timing belt covers off to expose the cam pulleys and they do line up with the index marks on the back cover. But when they are lined up, I think the notch in the crank pulley(which I have not removed yet) should be lined up with the 0 degree timing mark, and it is not, even after rotating the whole shebang around several times. Tommorow, I'll remove the crank pulley and center timing cover and hopefully see what's what. In the mean time, if anybody out there has any ideas, suggestions, anti-depressants, whatever. I could really use some ideas in general. Not sure if I'm on the right track.

[OB99W]

[...]It appears that I have fire, fuel and air, but no start. I'm startin to lean toward a timing issue (ie jumped time). Although the timing belt is only about 6 months old and should not be worn to the point of jumpin time because of wear.[...]

Welcome to the forum.

 

An engine needs "fire, fuel and air", but the "fire" has to be properly timed, and it also needs compression. Even if the t-belt isn't worn, it's possible that inertia from a very hard hit may have caused some slack that allowed the belt to jump.

 

You could measure compression, but since loss would probably point to mistiming, I'd pull the crank pulley and cover, and inspect the belt and other components while checking the timing. Fortunately, a '92 has a non-interference engine, so unless something really unforseen happened, you should be able to get things back to normal without too much grief.

 

Let us know what you find once the remaining cover is removed.

[diggler1971]

I took of the crank pulley and center timing cover this morning. I discovered the timing belt tensioner only had one bolt in it. The other one had backed out and I guess fallen out when he hit the bump. The other bolt was only in there about three threads. It had pretty severely jumped time. The bolt that fell out was wedged between the water pump pulley and the cogged idler on the bottom. The numerous start attempts grinding on the bolt had ground on the water pump a little, but no functional damage. I inspected everything and luckily nothing was really damaged beyond superficial cosmetic wear. I put everything back in time and slapped it back together, and she fired right up. Previous owner did the timing belt change six months ago, and I guess got a little sloppy with these bolts. They are locktited now and should be good to go. Thanks all. Dirk

[Olnick]

Way to go, diggler. Good sleuthing! And thanks for reporting back on the fix.

[OB99W]

I took of the crank pulley and center timing cover this morning. [...] It had pretty severely jumped time. [...]The numerous start attempts grinding on the bolt had ground on the water pump a little, but no functional damage.[...]I put everything back in time and slapped it back together, and she fired right up.

Congrats.

 

 

Previous owner did the timing belt change six months ago, and I guess got a little sloppy with these bolts. They are locktited now and should be good to go.

What's that old saying, "haste makes waste" ?

 

 

Thanks all. Dirk

You're welcome, although you did all the work!

[EVOthis]

just mentioning what others have said.....i had this very thing happen to my 96 legacy 2.2 i was cruising up a semi-steep hill at about 60 mph, hit a BUMP and .....than the car started to sputter and it died......cranked its butt off but wouldnt start.......turns out the timing belt jumped a tooth or two ( it was a pretty hard BUMP)...... anyways good thing is its a non interference engine so no harm done....