Hi everyone. Long time listener, first time caller. Long story short, I have a 93 940 turbo that broke its timing belt. No big deal, I'm pretty comfortable doing the job, as I've done quite a few timing belts on other cars over the years, and recently did one on an older 240. My issue is that the previous owner removed all of the upper timing cover.

Is there anything else I could reference in aligning the cam gear? I didn't really see a notch or anything on the valve cover or surrounding areas. It was already dark when I got it home and started looking, so i couldve missed something, but its fairly clean at the moment and my flashlight is strong like bull.

Thanks in advance!

-Josh

 

if they removed the backplate of the timing cover, UGH.






I suppose you could find the top mark like this...

 

I don't know how else you can determine accurately where the mark is. But that plastic part, called rear timing cover, is really cheap, like $20, so now it'd be a good time to get it and replace it. Nobody "removes" the plate, it falls apart with time, brittle plastic.

 

Thanks for the pictures! That's definitely a helpful start.

And I've looked into timing covers and it's definitely something I will be ordering. The car is a daily though, and it being the weekend, and me having to work on Monday, I'm trying to not need an uber. It would be super cconvenient to wait and tear it all down once since i should be doing the water pump and tensioner too, but sadly, it doesn't always work that way. The car is gonna be gone through at some point real soon I just can't swing it this weekend... Although I suppose it still might end up that way if I can't make it work.

 

that last pic of mine shows how to use a string through the two shafts to find the upper mark

 

That's the method I'm gonna try. I'll let you know what I come up with.

 

also, if your car has the camshaft end distributor, which afaik all 740/940 turbos do, then the intermediate shaft isn't important, its just running the oil pump.

if it has a side distributor (240s, some rare regina 740s), then the intermediate shaft determines the distributor timing, and is critical.

 

I absolutely forgot to reply to this until I was taking it all back apart to do the seals, tensioner, replace the timing cover, and all the stuff I should've done when the belt broke.

Without the timing cover for marks, it was still actually quite easy, I just lined the crank gear up with the mark on the block, set the dot on the cam to line up with the middle of the Volvo letters on the valve cover, and checked that the first two cam lobes were at 10 and 2, slipped a new belt on, and away I went.