Hi guys I need some input. I have a friend with a 1995 Ranger 2.3 with the dual plugs. He told me his truck was not running right after a timing belt change. It lacked power, was knocking and even noticed a few intake backfires. I assumed he had the belt wrong. So I pulled the codes first. One for the MAF, one for the ECT and one for cylinder 1 misfire. We changed the MAF and ECT. A little improvement but still had the cylinder one misfire.

We took the timing cover off after putting the crank pulley TDC. I aligned the cam pulley triangle to triangle and the oil pump balancer diamond to diamond. I hope I had the crank right, I really didn't want to pull the harmonic balancer. Okay here's where the ???? come in. The belt off the cam gear is off a HALF tooth. Not a full tooth. I take the belt off and move the cam the other way. It's off a HALF tooth that way. What's going on here? They broke the first harmonic balancer trying to pry it off and replaced it. So I started thinking maybe the wrong one? I pulled the cam gear off to see if any damage, none, good shape. Checking part numbers the harmonic balancer seems to cover 1995 on. So hmmm. I did notice 1994 belts had 129 teeth and a 1995 has 131 teeth. Wrong belt maybe? What could possibly make that cam gear a HALF tooth off? I'll count teeth tomorrow.

Let me add, checked coils. Secondary resistance was like 1K below specs so we changed them. I put my timing light on all plugs and had good fire. Plugs and wires are fairly new. I checked fuel pressure and it was in spec.

 

The 2.3l has woodruff keys on the 3 shafts(crank, cam, aux), if memory serves, they should all be at 12:00 when timed.
The triangle and diamond are usually on BOTH the Cam and AUX(oil pump) gears, they are the same gear, interchangeable, and a worn out diamond can look like a triangle, so heads up.
TDC mark on crank pulley should be OK to use as 0deg

If you have a vacuum gauge you can crank engine and should see 2.5-3" vacuum in intake manifold if timing is correct, or do test compression on 1 cylinder, 170psi would be expected if valve timing is OK
Since #1 has a misfire I would test it if possible

1/2 a tooth won't matter, as the tensioner moves more than that as belt stretches over time

1995 and up 2.3l/2.5l has the Tone Wheel on the back of the harmonic balancer, it looks like a gear with 1 missing tooth
Crank sensor reads each tooth on the Tone Wheel as it passes and also "sees" the Gap of the missing tooth, that Gap indicates #1 TDC
The tone wheel is a press fit onto the harmonic balancer, not keyed, while very very unlikely, it can shift, which would effect spark timing

Yes, lack of power would indicate low compression
Pinging/knocking wouldn't, its caused by compression/heat
Intake back fire could indicate a Lean mix igniting as it enters a hot cylinder, but could also indicate incorrect valve timing

Just FYI
Gasoline squirted from a fuel injector won't ignite by a spark, only gasoline vapor can be ignited by a spark(or heat), which is why gasoline engines need Compression above 100psi to work
The compression heats up the liquid gasoline to above 30% vapor level which is needed for full ignition.
And this is why gasoline engines need to be Choked when cold, "choking", in the case, means to add 2 or 3 times the amount of gasoline normally required, cold gasoline in a cold engine means less vapor to start with, so to get to that 30% vapor level more gasoline is added

1995 and up 2.3l/2.5l use BOTH spark plugs all the time in each cylinder, so to get a "spark misfire" BOTH spark plugs and BOTH coil packs would have to stop working on that 1 cylinder, and while possible its just not very likely, so a misfire is usually not spark related on these engines
1994 and earlier were the same except only exhaust side spark plugs and coil worked while cranking engine, after startup BOTH were on-line
These engines can run just fine with one coil pack and the 4 spark plugs, lower idle and slightly less power than with dual spark, but will run OK
And this is how you can test spark plugs and coil packs, assuming OK running or just an intermittent misfire, not a steady misfire, if you unplug the 3 wire connector on one coil pack then start engine, if there is a steady misfire then one spark plug/wire/coil pack is not working right, if its smooth then shut off engine and test other coil pack/spark plugs

 

The timing belt cover has a TDC mark on it and the crank pully should have a carved line into it, you may have to clean them up to see it, but they are accurate. And yes I have the same problem about the 1 tooth off with my 2.5l, considering I've set timing about 60 times now total, the 1 tooth hardly matters.... I usual end up leaving the cam slightly advanced for the 1 tooth as the cam sensor looks for the diamond to be at tdc. Try to get that one dead on. Either way, it will run at btc 10 to atc 10 tried both. Not the best running but it still works.