Hello, I just bought a 87 Nissan Stanza for my kid and although it runs great it seems to be underpowered when you first take off. It has 122k miles on it and compression is 120 across all four cylinders and it has many new parts but ............ I am wondering if the timing belt is off a tooth? OK I have tried to advance the timing but I noticed that it was advanced all the way already so I took off the timing belt cover and discovered that the belt looks brand new so I am thinking that maybe they put it on a tooth off ?? I am told that the distributor shaft can only go in one way in these cars is this correct ? The car runs great and once you get going it has ok power but it just feels like the timing is retarted too much but yet I cannot advance it anymore ?? Any ideas ?? could it be off a tooth ?? Please help

Jeff B.

Thats what happened with my 87 stanza after we replaced the water pump. The timing belt spins around a disc thats connected to the pump. Its the lower spindle. Anyways, it would slip a tooth everytime I started it and we couldn't figure out why. Turns out, when you put the timing belt and parts its connected to back on, you have to tighten these two bolts in a certain order. If you tighten a certain one before the other, it won't slip a tooth at all. I just don't know exactly where the bolts are. Just look at some books and find it. It took us about 3 weeks to figure this out but it was awesome once we did. Lots more power. Also keep in mind that stanzas naturally have little torque. In its best shape it still has low acceleration.