B230F Valve Shim and Husher Replacement --timing is everything!

I am whooped! My 740 ALMOST kicked my butt. Almost.

Yesterday my parts came in so I went to work. My distributor and rotor
were already off so I pulled the valve cover off, took off the timing
belt from the cam sprocket, pulled the sprocket (thank goodness for
impact wrenches), pulled the camshaft off, removed the valve keepers
and shims.

I was able to see that I had 4.025mm original shims on all cylinders -
barely able to read the numbers. I remeasured all shims and they all
checked. I replaced the shims - lubing them all well, and then dug out
the old hushers (3 were gone, the rest were hard and brittle). I
replaced all hushers and then replaced the valve keepers and new shims.


I reinstalled the camshaft, not replacing the front seal because it was
practically new. I torqued everything to spec and replaced the valve
cover with a new gasket.

I realigned the cam sprocket to TDC and replaced the timing belt. When
I went to start the car it was clunking, started and ran rough.
HMMMMMM.

After a good bit of thinking I realized that I had turned the fan and
moved the crankshaft out of TDC - so the cam and crank were not in
synch. The cam was 180 degrees off. I removed the belt, got the cam
and crank both to TDC and then she started and ran so quietly and
smoothly.

But the oil was leaking from the front oil seal - I didn't seat it. So,
I pulled the timing belt off again, and the sprocket again, and seated
the oil seal. I replaced everything again.

Now the car won't start. HMMMM. I pulled the plugs, they were wet with
gas. No spark. Again I pulled the timing belt and saw that again the
cam and crank were out of synch. I didn't align everything TDC when I
pulled off the cam sprocket. So I aligned everything again - started
the car and VROOOM -- ran nicely, VERY quiet, no oil leaks.

But the timing belt was loose and wobbly. I loosened the tensioner,
only to find that when I had used Channel Lock pliers to compress the
spring, the tensioner stuck a bit and wasn't tensioning. When I
adjusted this -- all was well and the engine ran beautifully.

So am I done? Nope. because the belt was loose, I have to check again
this evening if the timing belt is still aligning everything. And I
need to open the valve cover and check all my clearances.

Then, to make matters fun, the JB Weld I used on the distributor to
hold the Hall Sensor insulator broke when I plugged in the Hall Sensor
wire. So I need to pull the distributor off again and replace the
insulator with one I luckily ordered.

Lessons:
1) Timing is everything!!!! Always align top and bottom and never just
pull a sprocket thinking nothing will move.

2) Have an impact wrench handy to pull the cam sprocket - but mind your
torque.

3) Don't work tired. After 4 hours I knew to quit and come back in the
morning. Fatigue causes mistakes.

4) Work methodically.

Hopefully tomorrow I will have good news to post as a follow up.