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1996 escort.. timing belt?

Yup... another question on an escort! I would appreciate anyone's help (ok... anyone who has the correct answers would be best! heh)

1.9l 4cyl, has about 115k miles, timing belt was replaced at a ford dealership a few years ago (my best guess is around 50-60k miles ago).

A few days ago was driving around, came home for 15-20mins, got back in to start it and it turned over but made all kinds of nasty "clinking" noises and wouldn't start. I didn't let it turn over for long, maybe 5 seconds. Is this a "common symptom" of a bad/broken timing belt?

If it is only the timing belt, I will get it replaced. However, I don't want to take it somewhere and have it be 'this and that, and we need to replace blah...". If it's going to be a high-dollar fix, I'd rather spend all the money on a new car!

Anyone have any suggestions? I'm not a mechanic by any means, but I can swing a wrench as good as a 5yr old, and maybe my swinging and the haynes manual can help me fix (or atleast diagnose) it.

Thanks guys!

OH... let me add. While driving around before it "wouldn't start" I thought I smelled radiator fluid in the car. It might have been something else I smelled (I thought I took a shower!), but just somethng I thought I'd add incase it helps. I checked the fluid levels and they're all fine.

Reply to
Steve
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damn word wrap! sorry about the bad formatting folks

wrench

Reply to
Steve

swing a wrench

Reply to
Rusto

Thanks, will try that.

If the belt just jumpped a tooth, it will act like "normal", correct?

Reply to
Steve

swing a wrench

Reply to
steve piskor

I tried that this morning and I could see the rocker arms and valve springs moving.

I'm guessing that IF the timing belt jumped a tooth (or more) the only way to check it at this point is to take off the timing belt cover and visually inspect it, correct?

Are there any other "sure fire ways" to tell if the timing belt jumped a tooth or if it is indeed something else wrong with the engine?

crank the

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smelled

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Reply to
Steve

check it at

or if it is

broken: Mine

dealership a few

want to take

going to be

me fix (or

Reply to
steve piskor

loaded

may also

belt

which also

tensioner

Mine had

Did not check for spark. the "clinking" sounds bad, not like a bearing. The car (for the most part) ran fine before this. Went to start and thats when the sound happened and it didnt start.

Reply to
Steve

Hello Steve,

If you haven't already figured out what caused your problems, sounds to me like your water pump might have siezed up and took the timing belt with it. I know this from experience on my '90 GT. That is exactly what happened to mine, nasty grinding/metal/clunking noises and dead stop. Took it to the Ford dealer since I did not have the time to fix it and that was their report. I was at about 90K miles with a new belt at 70K, but the water pump gave out, so I had to get a new pump and a belt. Been running fine ever since to 154K miles.

Actually, this was the second escort I was riding in/driving that had this happen, the other was a 86 escort wagon that had the same problem. If you are mechanical you should be able to replace the pump/belts yourself if you have some jackstands and a floor jack. Having an air wrench handy and installing a new crank oil seal would be a good idea too (if it looks to be leaky).

Good luck, Matt

Reply to
Matt

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