To start, this is a 1985 GS with a stock 12a engine. I made a mistake and am wondering how boned I am. I had a friend assisting me by turning the engine by the eccentric shaft pulley bolt while I looked at the apex seals through the spark plug holes with a camera. I wanted to find TDC and repaint the timing marks in my front pulley. That part went fine.

The mistake happened when I went to start the car. I asked my friend if he was all-clear before starting it. He said "yes" but inexplicably left the ratchet attached to the pulley bolt. Needless to say when I started the engine, the ratchet wedged itself and completely backed out the pulley bolt. I shut down the engine immediately, but I'm afraid it may have been too late.

I reinstalled the bolt, but haven't restarted the engine yet. The clutch pedal feels quite a bit stiffer. I'm afraid the front stack may have misaligned and the thrust bearings moved. I know that's the major concern with removing the pulley bolt. I definitely didn't keep the clutch engaged when the bolt was removed.

I guess my question would be, is there any way to test to see if that eccentric shaft and thrust bearing are OK without removing the front cover? What would happen if I started the engine? Should I risk it and see what happens or is there a safer way to proceed? Any suggestions are welcome.

For what it's worth, I had intended to tear down this engine for a rebuild at some point. I just didn't want to do it yet. If I have to tear off the front cover, I'll probably just wait and rebuild the whole engine.

 

You really can't see anything with the front counterweight in the way, even if you removed the distributor and looked with a borescope. Pulling the front cover is in your future.

 

That's what I figured but didn't want to hear. Haha!

 

 

Perfect... thank you!