Hey guys, have an 02 4Runner that I’ve got an issue with.

First off, I apologize.. I posted this is another place but my account was too new at the time to make my own thread. Anyways, now it let me.

I’m hoping I didn’t screw something up too badly.. Im at my shop in the process of replacing the water pump / timing belt, and had trouble breaking free the nut on the crank shaft pulley. Finally got it off by bumping the starter with a breaker bar lodged against the frame. After that i had lost top dead center, and didn’t want to re-tighten the nut too much by cranking it almost 360 degrees.. so I tried bumping the started again to spin it more. Didn't do much so I just started spinning to TDC by hand. BUT I could t make it all the way.. there was a BIG resistance (much more than regular compression) and it wouldn’t continue rotating clockwise.

Not sure if it was a mistake to bump the starter after the nut was loose? But either way made a possible second mistake come to find out.. I did t realize you shouldn’t rotate back counter clockwise to get to TDC, but I wanted to make sure timing was still on so I did, guessing about 180 degrees.

Turns out timing marks are all still on, at least the 4 that I know of. I just have no idea what that resistance was. With a breaker bar it wasn’t moving. I did still have spark plugs in, but had rotated freely full circles more than once prior to this. I don’t think I had gone counter clockwise at all before this time, if I did it was a few degrees.

I’m not sure what I did wrong, was following a YouTube video to get this done. I’ve worked on cars/bikes for myself but I’m far from a mechanic. Everything was going smooth until this hiccup.

Any info/ insight would be GREATLY appreciated.. I’m on a time crunch to get this done and would love any feedback. Thanks in advance

Good Morning Brother..

Ask to Timmy The Toolman in Youtube.. He will tell you the correct form to resolve..

Good Luck..

For what it's worth, the 5VZ is not an interference engine, so you can't hurt anything by rotating the motor around with the timing off.

Have you pulled the harmonic balancer off?

Take the plugs out and try again to rotate again.