Posted by David Sherman [172.71.151.120] on Wednesday, December 20, 2023 at 00:19:43 :
I haven't been on this forum for a while. The 230s seem to have taken a back seat to the 22Rs in my world these days. But I went to fire up the '56 Snow-Cat, which has sat for probably 5 years, and she just will not run, despite half a can of ether used lightly, heavily, and not at all, at various times. Now and then a weak attempt to fire but that's all. Spark is good.
It almost sounds like what happens when the timing is way off, although I don't see how that could happen. But to double-check, I turned the engine over until the single mark on the crank pulley is straight up (the timing pointer on the timing chain cover is missing, but I figured "straight up" would be close enough to get it running, and checked the distributor. The rotor seems to be pointing on plug behind where it should be. The engine seems to turn over too easily by hand when I use the crank. |
But before getting into trying to turn the distributor or pull the tappet covers to see if all the valves are going up and down (might have gotten rusted in place), I decided to verify that the timing mark on the pulley is correct. I have a good crank pulley off another 230, with nice neat degree marks stamped into the rim, and 6 holes for bolts to hold it to the crankshaft hub, one of which is moved slightly in order to key it. The pulley on the engine also has 6 bolts and also has one moved over slightly for keying. But it was hard to see and measure very well with the pulley on the engine so this evening I removed it.
I was surprised to find that they are different. The one on the snow-cat has a 2-1/4" hub hole, and a 2-7/8" bolt circle, and a single stamped notch on the rim for timing, while the one I have off of some other 230 has a 2-5/8" hub hole and a 3-1/2" bolt circle, and the nice degree marks going both directions from DC. Unfortunately all my other 230s are at my cabin which I'm snowed out of for the winter now, or I'd check them. The snow-cat has another pulley, inboard of the timing/fan/generator pulley, that drive the hydraulic pump, but it's smaller and has no timing marks on it that I can see. To make it even more confusing, the "close together" bolt holes on the "fancy" timing pulley are pretty close to the timing mark, but on the snow-cat pulley, they're almost, but not totally, opposite.
Does anyone know what is going on with this? Did they really make engines with different crank pulley hubs, with the holes and the timing marks indexed differently? Is there any way to figure out just how it's all supposed to relate? I suppose I will have to remove that 1/8" pipe plug over #6 cylinder to see for sure where TDC is, but that requires removing the hydraulic oil tank on this vehicle, so I haven't done it yet.
I suspect I'm going too far off into the weeds looking for a timing problem, since the Snow-Cat ran when parked, but now I'm really puzzled about what is going on with the crank pulley bolt holes and timing marks. Any insight would be appreciated. I don't really want to get into tearing everything all apart in the dead of winter, with no garage to work in. It's only by luck that we're not buried in snow here in town yet.
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