May have possibly bent valves trying to undo crankshaft pulley bolt :(

Long time no see guys.

Half way through replacing the timing belt on the girlfriends freelander 1 (1.8k) and had a bit of a ****up moment.

Tried the old hold the starter teeth with a screwdriver to undo the crankshaft pulley trick and it didnt work. Cam locking tool was in place so cams stayed in place, pulley moved about 90 degrees and heard a few clicks. ****! I thought. Used a bit of force to get back to tdc so it all timed up again.

Didnt trust anyone holding the screwdriver in the teeth again so have since made a locking tool that fits in place of the gearbox cover at the front.

However im afraid if ive bent any valves or done any damage.

Have since removed cam locking tool and turned over engine, then when happy it was turning by hand started her up and she seemed to run ok. Still would like some advice though.

If any of the valves were bent would she have ran ok? How far would the crankshaft have to turn to ****up valves while the cam locking tool was in place?

If i have done damage i have a spare head i can throw on fortunately.

If you had bent a valve it would be chuffing and or missing!

Yeh, its running sweet - give her the car back and collect brownie points

Lucky escape!

Cheers for the replies guys. Can anyone comment on what the clicking noise might have been while the pulley was turning? It was fairly loud and wasnt any of the pulleys slipping on their keys.

Could you have actually hit the valves with the piston and heard that - just been luck that you didn't do it with enough force to bend anything.

You turning anti clock wise against the locked cams tension would
Have went slack between crank and exhaust cam and the belt skips over the crank pulley a few teeth maybe but if it's running fine then its a mystery I always have a impact gun to take them off with out having to locking anything except the camshafts

davidsmith1307 said:

Could you have actually hit the valves with the piston and heard that - just been luck that you didn't do it with enough force to bend anything.

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I think you would know if you where going against a valve you wouldn't be able to turn it with ease and it sudden lock it would definitely bend a valve if you tried to force it through a lock up

If i think about it, the clicking was most likely the tesnioner springing back as the pulley skipped teeth going the other way back to correct timing.

and the locking tool for the two cam shaft pullies are only about £6-£8 each and you only need one I would not chance it

teddywood1 said:

and the locking tool for the two cam shaft pullies are only about £6-£8 each and you only need one I would not chance it

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Have the draper camshaft pulley locking tool, its a flywheel locking tool ive made but not one that bolts on through the gearbox bolt threads. This attaches while the gearbox is on the engine in place of the front bellhousing cover.

Have you still got your freeby? I remember meeting you in Stoke many moons ago to buy one of your cb antenna mounts. Have just fitted my old cb in my little rover 25 to have a play with again.

yes I got a 2006 hse auto

Clicking sound likely to be valves touching the piston heads, but the speed and force of the impact perhaps not sufficient to cause damage. Lucky!

Screw driver method of locking the crank doesn't work. Just ask me how I found that out (although I was fortunate that the crank didn't move that far!)

Glad I bought the overpriced flywheel locking tool for when I do mine!

So I might be in the same situation. Done clutch and after that she did not start at all. But I was wondering that if rover engine will fit...It might be a stupid question because two cars are sharing engines. But is there a slight differences in two engines? Apart IRD of course? And if I can fit later model with coils instead of distributor cap. Rover engines are roughly half price of freelander engines. U pull it have them for £176 pulled. So there might be a chance. I tought I will have a great january. But. First clutch now this. I will now deffo on wednesday when my friendly garage phone with estimated bill.

you are not changing an engine because you can not get it to start are you?

no o god no. I am thinking about changing engine or even just the head because I might have bent valve as title states. When I was hanging clutch I moved the crankshaft and I am taking that timing belt jumped some teeth. After that it did not started. So My pal getting new timing kit fitted and timing adjusted. If it doesn't start after that I am taking he will check compression on each cylinder and let me know if I have made some damage to my precious engine. if Yes i probably need new head and HG kit

The head will likely have survived, as this was not a high velocity impact. Whether it is a good idea to rebuild the cylinder head with fresh valves? Well, that is what I did (I bought a replacement head with bent valves to replace the original that had been cooked following a gasket failure in the hands of a PO). I ended up replacing all 16 - from the original cylinder head - mostly because I could not convince myself that I could accurately identify the suspect valves.

Fortunately, with the right tools, it is not too hard to remove, rebuild and lap in replacement valves and do a complete job.

Thanks rob-bell
In Your words it sounds easy as anything. My friend have a garage and knowledge in this matters. I am vocationally a mechanic but not been in the industry for ages. Only as enthusiastic lad to mock around his own wheels. Attempted to change the clutch and look what I have done. So I won't be doing it myself. Unfortunately due to unfair dissmisal I have lost my job recently so money is the factor as well. But I would love to see my landy back working amd on his own four wheels.

Lukas430000 said:

So I might be in the same situation. Done clutch and after that she did not start at all. But I was wondering that if rover engine will fit...It might be a stupid question because two cars are sharing engines. But is there a slight differences in two engines? Apart IRD of course? And if I can fit later model with coils instead of distributor cap. Rover engines are roughly half price of freelander engines. U pull it have them for £176 pulled. So there might be a chance. I tought I will have a great january. But. First clutch now this. I will now deffo on wednesday when my friendly garage phone with estimated bill.

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Uh......uh.....I......I just cant even.....

How the fck have you in any way affected the timing belt while changing a clutch? seriously?
Turning the crankshaft with the gearbox off wont have done anything unless you were spinning the engine backwards. Just turning it a bit wont have done anything.

Are you sure you havent just forgotten to reconnect something?
If you have somehow made it slip the timing belt to the point where it wont run while working on literally the other end of the engine then I take my hat off to you....Thats one for the books.