Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting timing idler

I have a 1996 ford contour 2L and I was change my water pump and I been having problem after problem. But got the water pump off and my friend and I were just looking at the water pump and the gear had a piece missing. and two timing idlers are bolted to the water pump. and the biger one is crank and i price it at ford dealer the want close to 70.00 and the junk yard want 10 buck but have to pull it off and i dont want to have it take 3 hour for a 10 dollar part. But my friend dad said he could make a meldal one for me for nothing at all. And was wondering would mess up the timing or not?

as long as the metal one is the exact same size and mounted in the same spot, I see no reason why it shouldn't work.