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Thread: engine won't start - mystery!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Austin, TX
    Posts
    1,585
    My Cars
    1978 323i

    engine won't start - mystery!

    So, I changed my timing belt a week or so ago, and when I put it together, the car wouldn't start.

    Every so often it would backfire out the intake, but never seem like it wanted to start.

    Prior to changing the timing belt, it started and ran pretty well.

    My first thought was, I got the cam timing off by one tooth - but this evening, when I took the covers back off, the timing marks seem right on.

    The crank markings are a little hard to see through the paint mark, but everything also lined up with the balancer and timing cover on.

    The weird thing is, the distributor seems pointed to #3 instead of #1, when the crank is at TDC.

    I haven't touched the distributor or the timing in a couple of years at this point, and I checked that it wasn't loose or gotten bumped.

    What am I missing here?

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    Last edited by cgifool; 11-30-2020 at 12:08 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Austin, TX
    Posts
    1,585
    My Cars
    1978 323i
    Ahhh! I just realized what I did wrong.. I forgot that the distributor is turned by one of the other pulleys, and never kept it from turning while I had the belt off - e30 timing belt HOWTOs don't mention it since they don't have distributors...
    Last edited by cgifool; 11-30-2020 at 12:20 AM.

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