KnuckleBuster

Alright so, after much frustration of getting it apart (Its a homemade 25 yr old tractor, it's the most ghetto rigged set up you could imagine) the tensioner was indeed the problem. Everything is fixed and back together properly timing chain wise, just put the cover back on, and i wanted to ask if there's a specific way the oil pump and dizzy need to go back together. I'm assuming reverse procedure or does the oil pump need to go in first? The cam is at the proper position and cylinder 1 is at TDC.

Things are going well. All the accessories are off and most of the timing cover bolts are out. No i did not remove the distributor and yes it ran before. Quick question, does the distributor and/or oil pan have to come off before the cover? This thing is covered in about 25 years of grass clippings and oil so its hard for me to tell what exactly has to come off first.

Yes i checked firing order before anything else. And I used shop air through a compression tester hose into the head to hold the valves up. Cool, I'm about the head out the the garage and take a good look, hopefully she'll be back up and running today!

And generally speaking a scan tool is normally the last tool I grab for diagnosis. Always start with the sound (Ticks, knocks, etc.) then continue from there. Normally fuel system and then ignition, and then wherever it takes me from there. Lol I had a lady call me the other day and said her car was "acting funny". So I go take a look, first, not a drop of oil in it. And that's when I noticed the rod sticking out of her block lol

@DanielC thank you, best constructive criticism I've had all night. So pull the accessories, drop the timing cover, inspect everything and replace anything broken, align chain with timing marks, put it all back together and fingers crossed it fires right up? Cool, sounds like I've got some wrenches to turn.

I mean I don't have that exact tool, I used a screwdriver handle to wedge it in place. It's all back together at this point and I'm about to turn in for the night, but just theoretically, if the tensioner did shift or move like the picture what's the worst case scenario? Broken tensioner? Or something more along the lines of a bent valve?

Yes I took great care to make sure everything was in place and tight before start up. Even marked the cam, chain and sprocket and put it back on as it came off. But still, nothing. I'm quite out of ideas - that's why I'm here.

Hi there, new to these forums. I'm a full time college student of Automotive Technology and a classmate and I run a small shop on the side. The other day an older gentleman called us and said he's got a tractor with a 78 Nissan motor out of a 710 (Don't know much about it other then its a 4 cylinder and single over head cam) and said it needed valve seals. Cool. So we replaced the seals meaning we had to remove the cam and cam sprocket. we got it back together and it doesnt want to start, only backfire like its out of time. So we tried re-positioning the the sprocket on the cam dowel and still nothing. This is all new to me as I've been trained to work on newer stuff like Toyotas and Hybrids and the fact that there's not an OBD2 plug in on this has me lost lol. Any advice is greatly appreciated, thanks!