Sluggish Laser

You sure the timing belt is on correctly? Sounds like it may be off a tooth or two causing the retarded timing condition. It may be worth removing the cover to take a look and make sure all the marks are aligned exactly as they should be...

"Bob Shuman" wrote in news:mCgJd.82400$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net:

When I replaced the timing belt (with 120K Km on it), I checked the new one three times. When I removed the old belt from the balance shaft, it seemed to be out about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tooth, I aligned all the teeth on all the sprockets and even rotated the crank by hand to make sure that the markes lined up on the next revolution (also replaced the tensioners). But I guess it could still happen. Can this be measured in some way with the engine running.

Car starts OK, in the morning now. Immediatly after the belt change it would stall, but it only did it a couple of times and doesn't do it anymore.

I haven't checked the gas line (pump and filter) or the emissions system yet.

Thanks for all the input, now I have something to check.

You can check it with a timing light. I'm not really familiar with the 1.8L, but I would bet it is supposed to be 5 degrees of basic timing like all other Mitsus. You will need to ground the base timing terminal and then start the car. The terminal is a brown connector behind the battery (check vfaq.com for more).

Yea, it occured to me after I sent the post that a timing light would work. Actually I had though of measureing the output of the TDC sensor, then looking for the timming mark on the pulley. Then the light when on and said,just use a timing light, god I hate old age. Sometimes I get to complicated for my own good. But I didn't know about the connector by the battery. My history is with old American V8's.

If you don't ground that connector, it will vary a bit and be about 15 degrees. I had a similar problem with my GT/VR4 and I had it off a tooth on the crank. It was obvious with the timing light. The good thing was it was very easy to loosen and slip it back into time. It's not as bad as a whole timing belt job.