1991 240SE Wagon Still Not Running - Out of Ideas

Yup. Consider the value of your time, the parts you've already bought, etc. and then whether it'd actually be cheaper to have a pro figure out the problem and fix it. There are too many possibilities to go after it in a hit-or-miss fashion.

Consider taking it to a shop for the limited purpose of having them troubleshoot and isolate the problem, then you can either pay them to fix it, or DIY.

I would have done that in the beginning except I live out in the country and to have it towed to a shop to be evaluated then towed back home to repair would cost me a small fortune. I believe the timing is out. This is what I have found

OK - I have the upper timing belt cover off. I see the upper pulley (dont know name) dot indented on the outer flywheel. The timing belt white line is exactly 3 teeth to the right of this line. I see the O Line on the bottom cover for the bottom pulley but dont know what I need to line up with that. Ive never done this but I see 3 seperate pully type things that the belt goes around. The easy reached upper one, a small center one and the bottom one that I think is half covered by the bottom cover. I know you guys are laughing but I have know Idea what to do. As I understand I need to line the upper pulley dot with the notch on the inside plastic cover at 11 o'clock. Im confused, I have marks on the covers, marks on the pulleys and marks on the belt. Do I take the belt off, line up the 3 pulleys to their marks then put the belt on matching the belt marks to said pully's that are lined up - I will be reading until someone helps me - thanks

Don't worry about where the belt is. If you want to double check you'll find everything you need to know at:

If the timing belt has indeed jumped then it is probably overdue for replacement. I hope you have a good printed service manual in front of you while doing all of this work. My hunch is that the timing belt probably isn't causing your problem. Have you checked ignition timing? If the belt indeed jumped then it should also throw the ignition timing off since the distributer is driven by the small pulley you saw.

John