I'm new to having a Contour and still learning to do maintenance on my own car, so please bear with me if I ask something that is obvious to all of you. But, I hope someone can help direct me what to do.
I've got an early-model 1998 (built in 11/97) silver Contour SE. The timing belt sheared off a few teeth a week ago, so a friend of mine has been helping me replace it. He's done several timing belts before, but never seen a hydraulic sprocket like on my Contour.
I've read all the directions in the Chiltons and the Haynes manual and I've read the revised timing instructions and all the timing posts here on this forum. All the instructions say to hold the sprockets with the tool. But this sprocket obviously doesn't have any forks. And it has that hydraulic chamber on the end instead of a bolt.
So I've very carefully followed all the instructions on this forum and elsewhere to align the timing, but we can't get the car to start. When I algin the camshafts with the crankshaft and top dead center, the back camshaft stays aligned, but the front one always goes slightly unaligned when I rotate the crankshaft.
I can't figure out how I am supposed to adjust the front camshaft properly.
Can anyone help and tell me how I am supposed to adjust this front camshaft? Or am I way off base and it is something else totally different trick I need to do?
Here's a picture of my camshaft sprockets with the hydraulic one on the right.
