Dead '94 Tracker

[stebault]

I have a '94 Tracker that was running fine and just shut down the other day. I have checked everything, the ecu is giving a code 12, the timing marks are aligned, the valves are adjusted, the tbi injector is firing and I have spark, the fuel is clean and it has compression. I can not find any reason why this car is not running. Does any one have any suggestions, something I may have missed? Thanks for the help.

[Billy_1225]

I'm not very knowledgeable but here goes (maybe my simple suggestion can lead to something). If tbi is firing and spark plugs are firing and everything is in time I would wander if maybe your intake might be clogged? also maybe your exaust might be clogged?

Please let us know what you figure out.

[stebault]

Ok, your not going to believe what I found. Since the engine acted like a timing problem, I reset the timing marks again to TDC and verified the rotor position. I accidentally left the wrench on the crank bolt as I attemted to start it. This mistake caused the crank bolt to loosen. As I was tightening the bolt, I noticed rotational movement of the crank sprocket. Since this is a keyed assesmbly, there should be no movement. As it turns out, the slot in the crank had wallowed out as well as the sprocket and the woodruff key was about sheared. This situation allowed the crank to turn may be 15 deg inside of the sprocket. I do not know if the key was the wrong size or if the bolt had been a bit loose. I just bought the car ( running of course) a few weeks ago and it is apparent that someone has replaced the timing belt some time ago. To check it, I got a new key, fitted it to what was identifiable as to slot, filled in the wallowed area with JB Weld and reassembled. This indeed was the problem, car starts fine now, good news! Bad news... gotta pull the engine and tear down for perm. fix.