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ORIGINAL: rclement
Can these engines jump timing?

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ORIGINAL: Campgems

There are no timing marks on a saito that you can see. You set the piston to tdc. You have had the cam housing off, so that means the push rods and tubes are off. Push out the intake lifter. use a push rod and insert in into the opeing for the intake lifter and rotate the cam until it drops in the oil hole. This will lock the cam at the TDC setting, It feels loose, but you will not be able to skip a tooth off if the crank is true TDC. I remove the glow plug and the use something like a bambo skewer for Kabobs and insert it in to feel the top of the piston you will be able to see the TDC by the way skewer moves. Once you have found TDC, use a sharpie and mark across the thrust hub and the crank. Now, it just a matter of setting the cam housing back down and screwing it in place. I would use this chance to inspect the cam and crank shaft gears, but I seriously doubt you have any problems there. You would feel them hand cranking over the engine. Just make sure you get the gasket back on. A fresh one would be best, but an unbroken one is OK. It's not so much the seal you are woring about, but the spacing of the gears. With out a gasket, you will not have enough wink in the gears and their life,and the rest of the engines will be greatly reduced.

When you tighten down the cam housing, just snug one, the the opsoite corner, the next on the side, and then it's opsoite corner. It's like tightening down a head, if you tighten one screw all the way down while the others are loose, you you end up with a warped head. Ease into the tighening and follow the crisscross patern. Double check the timing before tightening dow, find the oil hole with the push rod and then see if your timing mark is lined up OK.

While you have the rocker covers off check for a broken spring, and after you get the push rods back in place, hand crank the engine over watching the rockers and make sure that they move smoothly and that there is not a valve hanging.

One last thing just came to mind, the cam drive gear on my Saito 45 slips on the crank and engages a pin through the crank. I guess it is possible that you sheared a pin, but not likely. If the engine gives you trouble after you get it back to gether, IE it looks like the timing has changed, then I would have a lood a the gear. THe 82 may have a different arangement though.

Don

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ORIGINAL: togatoga

What you did is correct.At TDC, the dimple should be at 6 O'clock. There are 2 ways of fixing the timing gear back on. Ist method is probably what the manufacturer does and that is with the lifter removed on right camshaft looking from the front, insert a 1.5mm wire thru to a oil hole located on the camgear.This will result in the dimple being in the correct 6 o'clock position and makes assembly easy. The second method is to use a knife blade to lock the gear teeth with the dimple at 6 o"clock. Both methods work fine.
I've noticed for my saitos that when they lose compression and everything looks OK, I would remove the valves especially the exhaust valve, clean them out, reseat them and voila, the compression returns like a charm- done them to my 300tl, 82 and recently to my 65. I reckon its the carbon buildup that occasionally happens.