My step dad went to take his 96 ranger to work this morning, got about 4 houses down and it died. He claimed it did not make any strange noises, just shut off, so he proceeded with trying to start it and nothing. Pushed it back in the driveway and pulled a broken timing belt from behind the cover. So my question is what are the chances no damage was done to the valves/head/pistons? And should I go about this by just changing his belt and hopefully that will fix it or should I pull the head and look for damage? Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

Pretty sure those 4cyl engines are non interface engines. So slap a new belt on and your good to go.

 

That is great news, thank you!

 

Do a water pump while you're at it.

 

actually it aint as easy as it sounds. If I was you I would reset the timing.

 

So I finally got around to starting this and I am stuck because the crank pulley is not coming off. I have a nice compressor and a nice gun but the nut won't budge. I have know idea what to do. Any ideas?

 

Might need to go to a autozone or a parts store like it and rent a pully puller.

 

Well if you can't get the bolt out then using a puller will do him no good. I have been thru this before. First make sure your socket fits tight. You loose alot of torque if the socket doesn't fit tight or if you use a extension. If you have a way to heat the bolt I would suggest that. If not try this use a steel drift(punch or something like that) a extension works too place it flat on the head of the bolt in the center get a hammer and hit it hard several times. Then try to loosen the bolt again. Also if you haven't already go buy some pb blaster and spray that bolt down let it soak about a hour and try again. If still nothing spray again and wait longer. It will eventually come out.

 

^pb blaster catalyst is a god send lol i use it and a wire brush on my 94 ranger and so far no broken bolts :)

 

sorry vince not tryin 2 derail ur thread here but im a knowledge hungry 23yo and im trying 2 sponge some info but what do you mean non interface engine? and how can u tell the difference? sorry if this is a stupid question but ive never heard that term used b4

 

My stepdad borrowed a really good impact gun from the neighors and after soaking it with pb blaster it did the trick, the pully came right off. Now I can't get the tensionor to move so I am having trouble getting the belt on, so more soaking is on the way.

It is not a problem. I am from the bmw world so all of our motors are "I call them interference" motors, witch means the piston gets close enough to the head that if the belt snaps at least one of the pistons would make contact with the valve, resulting in bent valves, broken valve guides, or even piston damage. So the ranger being non-interference means that in no position will the piston make contact with the valves.

 

oh ok kool is there any rule of thumb 2 know the difference tho? or just some engines are and some are not?

 

Its pretty much some are and some aren't, I found a list of all the engines that are at one point, I will try to find that again.

 

its not that big of a deal bud i was just curious if u could just look at somethin on the engine n tell lol

 

You can look at the valves with the valve cover off and see if any are sitting lower than the rest - if there are any bent valves, they will be sitting a little lower i.e. the valve springs will be compressed more than the others.

 

So it is now 3:50am here and I just got everything put away. To make sure I got the teath right I wanted to try and start it before I strapped everything back up, so I finally got the belt on were I wanted it, cranked, and nothing, not even a sputter. I figure I might have missed a tooth, so took it off, re aligned everything, put it on again, and still nothing. Get out look at it and realize my dumb *** didn't put the crank pulley back on witch happens to have teeth for the CPS. Would be hard to start without that, so I slip that on and the thing fired right up. Put it all together, drove it down the street and the ****er ran great. Now I am to adrenaline pumped to sleep.

 

That is such good info..... I've been debating doing the belt and that piece of news takes the stress off when I'll get to it.

 

Good to hear you got her back on the road!

 

Problems! Its running rough for what it sounds like under 1500rpm, to me it seems to pull fine after that. Replaced the plugs and wires to the same result, found TDC again pulled the cover off and looks like this



That doesn't line up perfect but not sure it can get closer than that.

 

Ericranger found a vacume leak, runnin like a champ now.

 

I'd still say you might be out a tooth, that's a pretty big gap in the arrows...

 

Mine snapped too. Left from a light and felt like someone reached over and cut the key off. I pulled the old belt out without taking the cover off. I think I will tear it apeart tomorrow and fix it.

 

Good luck man. Get-er-done.

It is good to read threads like this where people are stuck with a problem. Then they ask a question and recieve expert advice here on RF. It is a win win for everyone involved.

 

This post inspired me. My timing belt has been broken on my 91 for 3 weeks. I just towed it home and drove something else everyday. Id see it when I got home, but after working on other peoples cars and trucks all day I didnt want to mess with mine. Last night I read this thread and today got up and went to Napa to get a timing belt and fix my truck. Im not used to the 2.3L or many gas engine for that matter as I am a diesel tech by trade. So my hats off to you shade tree fix it yourself guys doing this job. To be fair I got it done in an hour and a half but after 14 years of being a mechanic it still took me THREE times of timing the belt to get the truck to run right. The first time it wouldnt even start, second time it starts and rund fine but just sounded funny. Not bad but just not right. Put the cover back on to check crank timing and I was 10 degrees before TDC. That means the crank turned about 3/4 of an inch on assembly. Set it back up and the third time it ran better than when I got it. Im glad I checked it before putting all the pullies and belts and covers back on the first time. Roadtest went great, truck even feels more powerful. Thanks for all of your info, help and general friendship on this forum. Glad I joined.

 

Was this motor a 2.3 dis motor and what was it in and what year was it as well