Well, I had setup a method to replace the seal only and keep the t-belt, but when I got the cam seal out, it was brittle to the point of crumbling in my hands.

The belt looked good, but I could tell it had a lot of exposure to oil.

I decided to change course and replace the timing, balancer belt, all seals (cam, crank, balancer, oil pump) and both balance and timing belt tensioners and do a complete job this time. The water pump with 40K miles will stay for a while if working ok and seal is good.

I think all of the seals/tensioners are original and if any seals are close to the condition of the cam seal, I am looking at problems in the near future if I don't replace.

Thanks

 

You'll have to judge the belt by looking at it, but remember looks can be decieving and the penalty for a broken timing belt is large amounts of $$$$.

Still, another 20k would be 60k total, which is kinda early anyway. I'd say clean up the belt & then replace it as soon as you can afford it.

Driving "easy" or not, the actual loading on the timing belt isn't much different.

(oops I didn't see your last post) New timing belt is a good choice since you said it had lots of oil.

 

Now that I am replacing seals, I can make a few observations...

Getting the lower cover off the 96 4cyl EX engine was darn near impossible until I pulled the dipstick tube out. Unfortunately I cracked the cover in the stuggle prior to this... hopefully jbweld will keep it from flexing. The dipstick cannot come out until the cover is loose. It makes for a nice puzzle.

The front balance shaft seal came out easily... guess that's why there was the recall. Getting the new one in was damn near impossible until I cut a length of PVC pipe and used a pry bar against the wheel well to push it in. There was no room to swing a hammer.

I was worried about the crank seal because there was no room to get a seal puller or screwdriver in between the crank and seal. Most of the seal was a steel reinforcement, but as luck would have it, I was able to dig a small screwdriver into the plastic face of the seal and use that to pry it out. I feel kind of lucky that worked.

In retrospect it may have been easier to remove the entire oil pump plate from the block that contains the three seals that I am replacing. replacement at that point would be easy and it would only require some RTV and reinstallation of the plate.

With the rear balance shaft seal left, I am hoping that the rubber gasket underneath the timing sprocket and housing can be reused.

Questions ( sorry that took so long )
If that rubber seal (the one that looks like a big squareish with a small loop attached to go around a bolt) looks worn, is it ok to use some hondabond along with the seal to make it seal well enough? I don't think I would need to go this route, but I haven't taken a look yet.

Also, when removing the timing belt, it looked to be off by a tooth by the previous installer. I put the belt on last time exactly as I found it, but before that not sure.... they were NAPA belts. Is the best practice to line up the timing marks and go from there, or use the marks from the previous belt. The car ran fine except for some cold start issues. Runs well when warm.

The car has two tensioners that I am replacing. The one that has the metal arm, has a slot for a bolt to attach it to the block. when I replaced the belt last time, the bolt was not there. Does it make any sense to put a bolt in? Would this restrict me from being able to make a "timing cover on" adjustment to the belt?

Thanks for reading... sorry about the length of my post

 

Yes

No.

Mine was missing too. Looked at several engines at the junkyard and saw that that particular bolt is a shoulder bolt but with a shoulder about half as tall as the timing cover shoulder bolts. When installed and tightened down the bolt head just barely clears the arm, allowing the arm to move. As such, I thinks it's true that you won't be able to do a lower-timing-cover-on belt adjustment if that arm is tightened down with a regular bolt.

 

tonight I took off the sprocket and case for the rear balance shaft seal and was surprised to see a couple of meshed gears that were covered with oil. Not sure if there is a shaft seal underneath that gear, but I can't understand what it would be sealing???

Is it true that there is no shaft seal for the rear balance shaft? Confusing.

I have replaced the forward balance shaft seal, the crankshaft seal and the camshaft seal. Is an EX different from LX with regards to the rear balance shaft and possibly not having a seal?

Also now that I have taken the sprocket assy off the car, It appears that I will need to use the trick in the book with a bolt to fix the position of the rear balance shaft so that I can put the sprocket assy back on and have it line up with the mark on the case. Yikes.

 

There is an o-ring behind the casing of that rear gear that you should replace. Get the car to TDC. If you put a 1/4 inch drill bit into that access hole, it should go pretty far in. Then remove the gear. As long as you have the rear balance shaft set, it will stay in time. It really isn't too difficult once you are sure that the rear balance shaft is lined up.

EDIT: Remember to remove that bit (or whatever you use) before trying to start the car or rotate the engine.

 

Good call on the o-ring. it looked ok, but was so brittle that it came out in two pieces. I will be getting a new one today from the dealer.

Thanks for all the help and happy holidays.