Quick question for all of you out there. I have everything thing off the front to reveal the timing components and I read that I need the crank key at the 12 o clock position. How can I get it to to the 12 o clock position. I heard that you can spin the rear tires and it would turn the crank. Thank you for the help guys.

 

You turn the crank manually by putting a socket on the harmonic balancer center bolt and turning it, Make sure that cam lobes are pointing in the correct position as well. Look in my photo album for pics of the harmonic balancer and cam lobe positions. This is important so that the colored links line back up correctly when putting together and that you are timed correctly.

 

You don't have to do that. Every timing part you're putting in there is marked, chains and sprockets. Just line up the marks and you'll be fine regardless of crank position.

 

When I did mine, I put my crank and the cams in the position that I described in my previous post and all of the colored links lined up right, no issues since. There have been a number of members here on this site that did not set the cams or harmonic balancer in the correct position and tried lining up the colored links and they either would not line up or there were other issues and they had to go back in. The colored links are a "foolproof" way to make sure that things have not moved when the chains were taken off but if the engine is not rotated after the chains are removed, it probably doesn't matter if the links really line up or not.
Either way, the valve covers are off and the front cover is off, lining up the harmonic balancer and the cam lobes properly takes mayber 3-5 minutes.
Just my 2 cents here having done this last year successfully and helped a few others here with this method. Good luck, let us know how it goes.
Tom