Hi,just thought share my experience with a knock problem i had on my 95 RA.
The car's a low milage car at 61000 miles,and shortly after purchace(first UK owner) it developed a knock. First impresions were cam shims,then bottom end,but never found the cause. This weekend i did a cambelt change,and when removing the crank pulley,found it was very loose and damaged.The keyway had striped half way round the pulley,and the woodruf key was damaged too. I ordered a lightweight pully,new key and crank sprocket,also fitted a modded oil pump(from Api) as i damaged mine!
Started it up today,and the knocks gone!! Been for a spirited drive and still not there.So the pulley must have been causing it. Good job i didn't go down the engine rebuild route.
I also noticed the timing was out,when all pulleys were set for removal,the crank was out.

Mit

 

Glad you managed to get it sorted in the end - a loose front pulley will cause
a knocking noise and eventual damage to the keyway on the crank.
Just make sure the front pulley bolt is tight (127Nm) - you wouldnt want it happening again.

Mick

 

Yes,thanks for your help,i've done the torque to 127nm as you say,strange thing is the service manual i have only said 98nm,which you could tell just wasn't enough!

 

What was your knock like ? constant or at lower revs etc ?

 

It was only really noticeable on idle,went away at 1500-2000rpm or so. I've heard a couple of accounts of this,pulley not being tight.Im just glad i found it before it damaged the crank!

 

I will have to check mine as i have a knock on low revs . had a few people have a look and they say its not big ends . but mine does sound like it is at the rear. how did you check ?

 

Just remove your crank pulley,the one driving the alternator an power steering,handbrake on,in 4th/5th,only takes 15min. Make sure you re torque it to 127nm when fitting.
You'll see if it's damaged(see pic), See how the pulley has been damaged by the woodruf key,it's got half way round the inner,good job it didn't get all the way!

 

Cheers for that , did you encounter any problems or was it easy ?

 

Mine was dead easy,but then it was loose(hence the damage!) If you find the woodruf key damaged,as i did, you'll need to remove the crank timing pulley,(mine was an absolute mare!)which means taking off the cambelt,but thats worse case senario.

 

Early cars had a tourque figure of 98nm in the manual. This was then reveiwed and changed to 127nm (95 lbft) in 1997.

A new age engine (2001 on) has a tourque figure of 177nm (130 lbft)

Phil