Am replacing oil pump and water pump on '88 Camry wagon. Also changing timing belt. Never done a big job like this before. New timing belt is not on yet. Setting the crankshaft for TDC is simple enough. That is set. Damper pulley mark is at zero mark. However the marks that are behind the camshaft pulley are confusing....because there are three! Behind the pulley---I guess that is the lip of the camshaft bearing...there are two round indentations, and then there is a raised line. As I have it positioned now, the little cam pulley hole is at about 12 o'clock, lined up with up with the first round indentation. I thought that was THE mark....only to notice later that if you continue around, the hole lines up with another round dimple, and then a raised line. The raised line is now more or less in line with the narrow "peak" of the rear #1 piston cam lobes... .and they are pointing at about the 9 o'clock position--- pointing towards the rear of the car. All four #1 valves appear to be closed. I can't find my haynes manual now to check... but I thought it showed the cam pulley hole at 12 o'clock, for TDC on compression stroke. I was also thinking that the #1 cam lobes would be pointing straight up. With this position on the camshaft pulley, I took the dist. cap off, and the rotor is pointing *generally* towards the #1 spark wire. But... it could be around 20 degrees off from dead center on the #1 spark electrode, because you have to pull the cap way off/outward to see where electrode and rotor are in relation to one another. What it looks like is that if I set it so the cam pulley hole is lined up with that raised line--- rather than on one of the dimples---the rotor would be quite a bit off from the #1 spark electrode.
When I got the car (180K miles on it), there was a loud bearing grinding noise coming from the front of the engine. So I knew something was worn out and about to fail. Sure enough, when I removed the water pump, the corrosion and wear damage to the impeller and bearing were so bad that I could not even turn it by hand! So it is a good thing I tore the engine down to replace the parts on the front of the engine now rather than later.
Thanks, Geronimo