I still haven't gotten this thing running. Now, a long time ago before I swapped this engine in, when I had the head off, I let the chain drop a little too much and the tensioner popped out while re-assembling everything, after I had the timing cover back on so I never noticed till it was already back in the car and time to finally put the chain and gear back on the camshaft.
Took it apart to put the tensioner back in place and straighten the chain out. I put it all back together and the timing was wayyyy off to the point where the car would not run. I was sure that the timing chain was off by a tooth so I took it back apart to get the timing cover off to get to that chain once again.
Then I researched more and realized that my dizzy shaft probably just wasn't lined up. So I put it back together and made sure everything was lined up correctly and now I am right back to where I was, timing is still completely out of whack.
I am almost positive that the chain is incorrectly lined up/ on the wrong tooth, but how do I figure out how the chain is supposed to line up with the shafts at this point? In a perfect world it would be all marked and ready to go back on, but since it's not how in the holy bejesus do I figure out how its supposed to go back on correctly?



TL;DR - Basically lets imagine someone took the cam off and removed the timing chain without marking anything. How would you figure out how to put it back together so the timing wouldn't be off?


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If you let the chain loose, I 100% guarantee that the tensioner popped out. If you turn the motor after that, it will drag the tensioner and spring out with it.

But if you want to do all the checks before tearing into it again, I REALLY suggest reading the how-to in the Haynes manual, or my many posts about the subject.

Lastly, set the motor at TDC on cyl #1, and check the cam mark vs the crank timing mark vs the dizzy shaft. All three will tell you if everything is aligned.