No start situation after Timing Belt replacement

[rjohs]

1992 325i Convertible.

I’ve completed the Timing Belt change, along with the other “while you’re in there” items, and now I have a crank but no start situation. I’m hoping it’s something simple I’m overlooking. I’ve done the basic troubleshooting steps of checking for spark, and jumpering the fuel pump relay terminals 30 and 87, so I’m confident there is spark and fuel delivery. The crank position sensor is in its place. Is there another sensor I may have removed or damaged that I can check?

These are parts / work I completed:

Timing belt
Tensioner, spring, pin
Water pump, fan clutch
Distributer cap and rotor
Spark plugs
Alternator and power steering belts
Cam seal and O-ring
Air filter
Cleaned filter box, Air Flow sensor housing, and throttle boot

Thanks in advance,
Rich

[gtdragon980]

Okay, I remember the first time I did a timing belt on my e30, this happened to me as well. In the end, we had a backyard mechanic fix it. This was 6 years ago. From what I know now, if the procedure was done correctly, spark and fuel are present, there is no reason it should not start. Now what I would do is double check the timing marks on the crank and cam to ENSURE it is correct. Rotate the crank just to make sure, I get very paranoid when I mess with timing. Now once those are good, we know that the rotor can only go on one way, so there is really no way to adjust ignition timing. If you are 100% sure there is fuel & spark, the only other things that could cause a no start is a faulty crank sensor, incorrect plug wire placement on distributor and maybe even the ecu (but I doubt that if the engine was running prior). Unless I am missing something, the engine should start.

[rjohs]

Resolved: No start situation after Timing Belt replacement

Well, I figured this out after taking everything apart and back together a few times. I guess you could describe it as both a timing and firing order problem, but not as one would usually think.

The issue ended up being the part that the rotor attaches to (can't find this part on RealOEM, the picture they have doesn't look like my part). I didn't notice after replacing the cam seal, but this part was slightly damaged, and I didn't get it "clocked" right when I re-installed it. So while the timing belt was correct on the pulleys, and the firing order was correct on the distributor, because the rotor was out of position slightly, it wasn't firing at the proper time.

I'm not sure how many times I pulled the whole mess apart to check the timing belt position, but I never took this part off, because it didn't seem necessary... well, now I know in the future to check every part of my work when I've got a problem.


Rich