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1G Timing belt woes. 1g eclipse restoration road block

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Dethh117

Proven Member
56
13
Aug 3, 2022
Tennessee
I believe I have been graced with a case of the bad timing arm bushing and or mount. And it’s great because they are no longer made. Does ANYBODY have a tried and true workaround for this. This is my first dsm. I have always wanted a turbo eclipse but this one is giving me hell. It is walking off of the cam gears excessively. Like half the belt is off just in 6 rotations. Any help from the dsm gods would be appreciated. 1990!eclipse gst.
 
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I believe I have been graced with a case of the bad timing arm bushing and or mount. And it’s great because they are no longer made. Does ANYBODY have a tried and true workaround for this. This is my first dsm. I have always wanted a turbo eclipse but this one is giving me hell. It is walking off of the cam gears excessively. Like half the belt is off just in 6 rotations. Any help from the dsm gods would be appreciated. 1990!eclipse gst.
6 rotations is nuts. Have you ruled out pulleys and the gears?
 
Pulleys are new. Well auto parts store new:/ can’t seem to find anything genuinely one anymore. But yeah. The only time I’ve ever seen it so bad I had an h22a prelude that had the same style setup and did the same thing. It was the bushing. I got the car not running with 8 bent intake valves. Got the entire head redone and the block checked by a trusted TRUSTED machine shop all is well. Just this damn belt. That arm has a good bit of play tho. Way more then I’ve ever seen.

Cam gears as well are brand new. Bought them off of Mitsubishi overstock website. . I have been a repair tech for 5 years and know how to spot out of round issues. So what’s supposed to be true looks to be so to me.
 
If you suspect the mount may have a bad or wore out tensioner stud, put a different mount on the motor. Unfortunately, Nate is out of the tensioner arms but Gary provided plenty of sources for them!
Thanks Gary! :thumb: Thank you also @Purevil ! :thumb:
 
If you suspect the mount may have a bad or wore out tensioner stud, put a different mount on the motor. Unfortunately, Nate is out of the tensioner arms but Gary provided plenty of sources for them!
Thanks Gary! :thumb: Thank you also @Purevil ! :thumb:
Alright so update. After trying to order one off all those sites I got an order cancellation saying they are discontinued. Which sucks. So back to square one. I’m going to look for the Hyundai one. Thank you all so much.
 
Put your email address in the notification field for the tensioner arm at Performance Partout and you will get a notice when they get the next one in. I have used that feature on a few hard to find items.

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Yes they are discontinued (as is most everything DSM) but some places may still have some in stock. Try calling a Mitsubishi dealer and ask to check stock at all dealers in country. The Hyundai one may be your best bet. As a last resort you can try ordering one from Japan here: https://www.amayama.com/en/part/mitsubishi/md130032. They have high shipping and longer wait time but supposedly still have most DSM parts.
 
I've had pretty good luck with Amayama. they do actually have about ~70% of the parts they show as available. ( I've always struck out hard from any dealerships in the US I've tried; The vendors on this site are usually much better). If you are ordering more than just one part, it might take a little more time as they check their stock and see what's really there in warehouse. It is a little expensive to ship, but once you pay the main part of the shipping, adding more parts is generally not going to raise the shipping that much. I do also see these tensioner arms come up from time to time in the classifieds on this site, but I don't expect you feel like waiting until one miraculously pops up.
Does yours feel like it has play in it or something? If it fits with little clearance and turns OK, then I can't imagine there could be much else wrong with it (cast iron). If you have changed out some of the older pulleys (as in literally from 1990) for newer ones, I believe some of the bolts also have to be updated. I recall ordering the all the associated T-belt items from JNZ a while back, and Josh steered me to replacing at least one bolt in particular (can't recall, but I think idler pulley belt). Did you get any new pulleys that didn't quite look like the original you removed?
 
You are correct on the change of 1 pulley. The 1990 idler pulley used to have a "snout" on it and was held on with a long bolt, the revised pulley has a recessed bolt that is much shorter than the original.
 
Be aware that with many online places if they don't really have the part in stock (even though it's listed on their web site as available), you'll order it and never hear from them again. They ignore you rather than tell you they don't have it. This happened to me from Amayama as well as many other sites even though they require you to pay with credit card up front (they require this for them to even look to see if they have the part in stock - they won't charge you however if they don't have it). So you can wait for months with no reply.

Also I've experienced the case where one manufacturer changed the offset of the TB pulley. This was at a Mitsubishi dealer with the same exact Mitsubishi part number! They changed vendors. This caused the TB to not ride in the center due to the forces difference from a slightly different offset (the pulley still lined up correctly but the force was not even all the way across it - more on one edge than elsewhere so it moved the TB over. The face of this pulley where it bolts on was farther in from the outer edge than the older one). I had to drive all over town to every Mitsu dealer to examine every pulley with the same part number to get the older one which worked properly!

And be aware that if you buy a used tensioner arm, the bushing may be worn to where you still have the same problem.
 
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Hyundai one looks really close. Wacky. BTW Dethh117- I sent you TWO ebay links for used ones, I'd buy the one less greasy. Under $40 and it should be fine.
 
Alright guys I’m an idiot and the person who owned it before me was an idiot: the crankshaft sprocket was not all the way on. They didn’t even have it keyed. Which would explain the broken intake valves. No walk now.
 
Alright guys I’m an idiot and the person who owned it before me was an idiot: the crankshaft sprocket was not all the way on. They didn’t even have it keyed. Which would explain the broken intake valves. No walk now.
Got a pic? The key way on the crank is only for balancer & timing belt pulleys. Harmonic balancer has a dowel pin on the timing belt pulley and anchored by the 4 12mm bolts.
 
Got a pic? The key way on the crank is only for balancer & timing belt pulleys. Harmonic balancer has a dowel pin on the timing belt pulley and anchored by the 4 12mm bolts.
What I’m saying is the crank sprocket for the timing gear was torqued against the key. Not with the key in it. So it legit was only riding against it. It must have spun on him and that’s why all the intake valves were broke. I have it all back together. Still can’t get it to run. The starter hot wire is so corroded I can’t even see wire so I suspect that is my super slow start culprit you all are an amazing community and I thank every guy that put input here. I really am an idiot for not catching the crank sprocket sticking so far out from the rest of my timing components.. that’s an obvious reason for the belt walking off of the cams so aggressively. The damn thing was being pulled . Anyways. You guys really are the best.. thank you!
 
Hey guys. I’ve got it running. It runs good. It has a manual boost controller. Under boost I’m breaking up and misfiring hard. Typically a lean condition. Right? My afr is all sorts of not working well LOL so I can’t tell. It’s running autolite plugs. Is this a spark issue by chance?
 
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