Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Crankshaft pulley help & timing

I'm in the process of changing the timing belt since it snapped off. I have the cam aligning tool but my crankshaft pulley doesnt have notches or "teeth" to line up for TDC.

The pulley does however have four drilled holes on the front of the pulley. One hole is directly above the keyway. The second hole is approximately 1 5/8 inches to the right. the next hole (3rd) is approximately 1/2 inch to the right. The final hole is directly below the first one which would be about the 6'oclock position.

My question is twofold,
1.) First, how do I line up the crankshaft pulley without the teeth or notches...do i use the drilled holes as a reference or do I just try to line it up by feeling the piston at TDC? And if that is the case, how would I find the compression stroke and not the exhaust stroke without a compression guage?
2.) For TDC, its #1 correct? Is there an easy way to tell if I'm on compression or exhaust stroke?

You can put a screwdriver and put it in #1 and turn the crank until it comes all the way up tp TDC. There is a crank pin that is used to get it exact. Don't know if you got it the same time as you got the cam alignment tool. If it is a zetec with the VCT solenoid it is very important to get the timing exact.

Read through all 3 posts (and threads) you made regarding this issue. Between the 3 of them, you should have the answers to your questions.

Thanks for the advice Tony...I read through all my threads and the answers and, ...i even did a search and read through those posts and threads...unfortunately I couldnt find anything about the toothless crank pulley and the way to line it up.

The manuals show diagrams with pulleys that have the notches. The 1996 Ford instructions are great but they arent the same for the 1999...my year.

So I wasnt paying attention when I asked about TDC, first time doing this job sorry!

I dont actually have the toolkit, I just went out and bought the angle iron for the cams and ground it down to .20, so as far as the crank pin...thats a no go!

DEC, help me out on this...if I remember correctly from doing other timing related jobs and service on other vehicles, can I locate TDC with a compression guage in the #1 hole on the Zetec engine and do you think it would be easier to go that route with my notchless crank pulley rather than trying to figure out compression stroke with a screwdriver and having a 50/50 chance of being correct? Or is this crank pin you were talking about the way to go?

Read this thread and the thread inside.
http://www.contour.org/ubbthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=zetecmaint&Number=1206766&fpart=1&PHPSESSID=