Ok.. my patience is running a little thin after taking on a timing belt replacement myself.

My issue is that after 4 attempts to put the belt on with the cams and crank in alignment as soon as i finish putting the tensioner in the cams become un-aligned slightly. I followed the instructions where you turn the crank tdc line 1/2 notch before and then putting on the belt in order of water pump, then idler, then cams then back around.

What am I doing wrong or is this normal? It seems like I'm a tooth off on timing or something and i'm irritated at this point.

Any help would be appreciated and if anyone in/near Spring, TX is willing to help me in person that would be cool too.

Have you had the head surface or block deck machined?

I leave the bottom at TDC, then the intake cam half a tooth back.

Seems to work best for me.

As CODE4 said, if the head/block was milled you wont be able to get it exact because of the height difference.

Originally posted by teklein
I leave the bottom at TDC, then the intake cam half a tooth back. Seems to work best for me. As CODE4 said, if the head/block was milled you wont be able to get it exact because of the height difference.

I'll try that tonight and see what happens.

before taking everything apart all the timing marks were aligned.

Originally posted by iamnotwhoiam

Originally posted by teklein I leave the bottom at TDC, then the intake cam half a tooth back. Seems to work best for me. As CODE4 said, if the head/block was milled you wont be able to get it exact because of the height difference.

I'll try that tonight and see what happens. before taking everything apart all the timing marks were aligned.

Also, I put it on the idler last.

I go water pump, crank, tensioner, intake cam (pulling slack, hence the half tooth), exhaust cam, then idler.

Originally posted by CODE4
Have you had the head surface or block deck machined?

nope

Rotate the intake cam back half a tooth, and the crank just a smidge before TDC. When you tension the belt, everything should suck back into place.

Originally posted by DarkOne
Rotate the intake cam back half a tooth, and the crank just a smidge before TDC. When you tension the belt, everything should suck back into place.

Thanks. I'll do that tonight and hope it works this time.

I do have to say that the 2 steps that seemed to be the hardest on this task were getting the bolt removed from the crank and getting that 3rd bolt out of the side motor mount and I didn't really have any issues getting the pulley off, just took some time.

I am also thankful that the water pump went on me which prompted this replacement since when pulling the timing belt out it was horribly bad.

I'll post some pictures of it when I'm done. I have about 94k on this car and looks like the timing belt had not yet been done ever.

Originally posted by DarkOne
smidge

i like that word