95 escort lack of power

[poohnate]

i had the same problem on my 1994 ford escort i had to replace the timing belt it broke with me doing 65 mph down hwy 99 i replaced the timing belt the car was running good for a week t didnt think to have the pully tightened back to specs well my car did not want to go the exhaust manifold was glowing red i was searching the internet for solutions my brother in law said clogged cat so i was going to take it to pep boys then i came on the net today started looking with all kinds of helpful info out there but none of which was right for me till i found this sight and lawton_kid post on 01:35 PMUpdate 2-4-04 i read his post went out took the car back apart saw that the harmonic balancer was wore where the key way would sit it ws wore about 1/4 of an inch i put a shim in it to see if it was the problem and sure enough as soon as i started my car i could tell the difference so thank you lawton_kid ill be getting a new harmonic balancer today remember if you cahnge your timing belt tight the bolt to specs or yopu could have the same problem i was at my wits end i almost sold it to pick and pull for $266.00 glad i found this thanks again nathan

[lawton_kid]

Glad we could be of help.

That same car we had all the trouble with is still giving trouble free service, and sometimes getting around 40 MPG on the highway. It has around 230K miles on it.

Also, we used non-permanent thread locker on the bolt that holds on the harmonic balancer to make sure it never happens again.

The Kid

[poohnate]

i also used thread locker on the bolt lol