The engine is finally back together as of this morning. When I turned the key, the engine did not start and it back fired through the throttle body.
Here is what was done:

1. The marks on the cylinder head were lined up by the machine shop.
2. I rotated the engine so that the small projection on the harmonic balancer lined up with the TDC sensor. I assume that is what you call the sensor. It is the one that the projection on the HB sweeps by at about 12 o clock. I had to move the bracket that the sensor is held in when I was changing the timing chain guides. Not sure if this could have caused the problem
3. Lined up the rotor in the distributor to where cylinder one would be.

If you can give me any advice on how to solve this problem, I would greatly appreciate it.



Thanks,
Mike

here are 2 images showing the marks in there correct position

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
1967 250 S
1967 280SE
1968 250S
1971 280 SE
1973 220
1974 280 S
1975 450 SEL
1976 220 D
1979 300SD
1983 300 SD
1985 230 TE euro
1986 280SL
1986 500 SEL euro
1986 190E 2.3
1990 300 SE
2003 C230 K
2004 C230 K
1987 560SEL
1987 300SDL now in canada
2005 C230
1998 C43 AMG Sold to DON
1993 190E 2.6
300TD Former daily driver Totaled
current:
R320 CDI
Ram 2500 Cummins

Ignition timing is created off the crank sensor at the rear.

The cam timing is created by the timing mark "O" on the balancer lining up with the poimter. The inductive device at the balancer has nothing to do with this and should be ignorred. The cam has a mark for TDC and teh rotor would only be used to indicate whether the mark was pointing to #1 or #6.

__________________
Steve Brotherton
Continental Imports
Gainesville FL
Bosch Master, ASE Master, L1
33 years MB technician

Assuming the cam is not lined up as in picture one, how do I rotate it the correct position? I assume I remove the gear the timing chain sits on. After that how is the cam rotated?

Okay. I rotated the harmonic balancer to the postion indicated in the picture. The depression on the cam is slightly to the left of the mark it needs to be lined up with. I have indicated the position with the dot since my picture did not come out very clear. I assume I need to have the two parts in the cylinder head perfectly lined up. The rotor in the distibutor is not at 6 o clock or so. I also assume this needs to be at the position that corresponds with cylinder 1..right???

picture

Attached Thumbnails

 

Never mind, it was close enough. I just had to get the distributor rotor to the position that corresponded to cylinder one. The car starts and is running great. Thanks for all your help

that is usually not something you can get wrong, the rotor drive should only go on one way. is it broken?

__________________
1967 250 S
1967 280SE
1968 250S
1971 280 SE
1973 220
1974 280 S
1975 450 SEL
1976 220 D
1979 300SD
1983 300 SD
1985 230 TE euro
1986 280SL
1986 500 SEL euro
1986 190E 2.3
1990 300 SE
2003 C230 K
2004 C230 K
1987 560SEL
1987 300SDL now in canada
2005 C230
1998 C43 AMG Sold to DON
1993 190E 2.6
300TD Former daily driver Totaled
current:
R320 CDI
Ram 2500 Cummins

No. I had the distributor removed from the car and just pointed the rotor in the wrong spot when I reassemblied it.

that still really does not make sense, the "distributor" cannot be installed incorrectly, the ignition rotor attaches to the front of th cam by an allen with an alignment pin

__________________
1967 250 S
1967 280SE
1968 250S
1971 280 SE
1973 220
1974 280 S
1975 450 SEL
1976 220 D
1979 300SD
1983 300 SD
1985 230 TE euro
1986 280SL
1986 500 SEL euro
1986 190E 2.3
1990 300 SE
2003 C230 K
2004 C230 K
1987 560SEL
1987 300SDL now in canada
2005 C230
1998 C43 AMG Sold to DON
1993 190E 2.6
300TD Former daily driver Totaled
current:
R320 CDI
Ram 2500 Cummins

Sorry for taking so long to respond. Work got a bit busy for awhile. I can only speak for the set up in my car, but once the rotor is moved there is a T shaped part. I loosened the torx in the middle and was able to rotate the "T" around. When the engine was not starting and the engine was at TDC, the rotor was pointing to the 6 or 7 o clock position. All I did was rotate the entire rotor around so that it was pointing at the position that corresponds to cylinder one (about 1 o clock). The car started right up. I have taken it out on the road a couple of times and everything is running smoothly.

hi, if you can loosen the retaining torx and turn the "T" bracket for the rotor then yours is likely broken. the "T" should olly go on one way and has an alignment pin or lug.

__________________
1967 250 S
1967 280SE
1968 250S
1971 280 SE
1973 220
1974 280 S
1975 450 SEL
1976 220 D
1979 300SD
1983 300 SD
1985 230 TE euro
1986 280SL
1986 500 SEL euro
1986 190E 2.3
1990 300 SE
2003 C230 K
2004 C230 K
1987 560SEL
1987 300SDL now in canada
2005 C230
1998 C43 AMG Sold to DON
1993 190E 2.6
300TD Former daily driver Totaled
current:
R320 CDI
Ram 2500 Cummins

Thanks for the info. I will change it out.

I can confirm that the T bracket should not be able to rotate as I just rebuilt my M103 engine. On the bracket there is a notch that lines up with a pin inside the cam assembly.

That t bracket has a groove in it and should not rotate if it is installed all the way in the cam. there is no distibutor in a 103 motor the cap bolts to the head and the rotor bolts to the cam no distibutor to remove