Original WP was leaking badly. The timing belt was done about 40k ago with the head gasket recall, but it was torn down so, why not? The best piece of advice that I got from Yotatech was to make sure all of the slack in the belt was @ the tensioner. I made sure all of the marks were lined up before taking the old belt off, and never had to touch the crank or cam sprockets again.

I will repeat, the easiest way to get the timing right is to do the following:

Line up the notch on the crank with the "0" on the timing belt cover BEFORE removing the belt.

Put the new belt on the driver's side cam pulley first, then the crank sprocket, and then the pass. side cam sprocket. When doing this, all the slack will be @ the tensioner, and you don't have to worry about the timing getting 1 tooth off.

The really big PITA was the No. 2 idler. If I didn't see on Yotatech that it could be removed w/o pulling the plenum, I probably would have given up. It needed replacing though, because it sounded like one of those old school roller skates with metal wheels rolling on asphalt.

Thanks to all that had posted their success/horror stories for me to learn from.

 

I gota 91 also, and am about to change out the timing belt, wp, thermostat, belts, and anything else that needs changing along the way. I'll remember that about taking the t.b. off, I got the timing belt cover off now but only have an arrow on the drivers side cam sprocket does the pass. side have one too?

 

Both cam sprockets have timing marks on them. Sometimes they are hard to see, but they are there. If you haven't taken the belt off yet, just line up the crank pulley with the "0", if 1 cam sprocket is lined up, both should be. Mine weren't actually arrows, they were just small lines.

 

congrats. that's a task!

 

nice!

now you can come over and do my valve cover gasket! haha

 

I just put a big glob of rtv on my finger and fill in the cracks where its leakin'

 

thanks alot, you were exactly right! i found the notches, and just to be sure took the dist. cap off to make sure the rotor was pointing at #1 cylinder. got the crank pulley bolt off finally and now moving on to the next hurdle(cam pulleys), for someone that used to bring their 4runner to the dealer for service this has been like a roller coaster ride for me but I'm learn'n alot along the way..thanks for the help