I was driving the other day and right as I went over a speed bump, the car backfired twice and died…Car would crank afterwards but no start…the spark plug wire closest to the distributor was a little loose when I looked at it right after this happened…I put it back on and tried again, no start. Towed car to my house I tested for spark and its there…cranked engine by hand to TDC and the picture shows how the gears line up…did I jump time??? Im going to do a compression test tomorow but I am really just lost and have no idea what happened…Any help would be appreciated thanks
Also I forgot to say…if you are looking at the picture the belt has a lot of slack on the left side…the right is tight
Yes it looks like the belt jumped a tooth. Replace the belt and do a compression test.
I put a new belt on a month ago does it make sense this would happen so soon??
If it wasn’t properly installed, yes.
Ok I lined up the gears towards the bottom too and everything actually lines up perfectly so I don’t think I jumped time…starter fluid in the intake wont start car and spark is there…ideas??? Thanks guys
Compression test reads 50 75 75 and 100
You should be in the 140+ range… do a leakdown test and see where you’re leaking from.
Being that the car ‘backfired’, died, and now won’t start with starting fluid almost guarantees that your timing is off and valves got bent.
Yeah that’s what my friend is telling me too im over messing with it and don’t have time I’m about to take the car to the shop and just have it fixed…thanks and when I find out for sure ill post what the problem was…
Dude said rotor was loose in distributor…its weird cause I put on the other one and it still didn’t start so I guess it must be bad now too ? Lol
Obviously you have bigger issues with compression like that. But my car backfired and died at a light once.
More like a putt putt putt and die. But my ignition coil failed when that happened.
Bent valves will cause that low of compression.
Car is running fine now ill do a compression test again…if I had bent valves wouldn’t car be running poorly or not at all
Yup. You could be one of the lucky few who didn’t bend valves with a timing-belt jump, but it’s rare.
Ok all he did was tighten the rotor and the car ran fine…I am 99% sure I front have a timing jump and its been driving normal for like 2 days now
If your compression is that low, either you didn’t do the test right or something is wrong.
Ok I’m gonna do the test again in an hour or so…but. the rotor problem in distributor would not cause low compression your saying?
The distributor has nothing to do with the amount of air(compression) your cylinders hold… it’s all about mechanical timing and parts being in good condition.
as i was reading the title i immediately thought distributor rotor. had the exact same occurrence years ago.
i think your tester or test is not correct. anywhere around/below 70psi is gonna run like a sack of hammers
Your car def. wouldn’t be running right with compression like that. You either did the test wrong, or the equipment you’re using is off.
For example, I just did a compression check on my 92 GSR a month back:
176
175
181
178