My car is a 97 eclipse RS. Im just about done with my engine rebuild and i went to start the car and it turns over strong and all. I have a new pair of aem cam gears on there also which may be the cause. However i took a look at the timing belt and it keeps sliding over towards the head of the engine. At the moment since i last tried to crank it the timing belt is actually over the edge of the cam gear and it ate away at the edge of the timing belt a little. Has anyone experienced this problem, i searched for it but couldn't find anyone with the same problem. I can take pictures of it to show you how it looks on there now but i do not know how to put pictures on here but i could send them to anyone's email if they'd like. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks alot everyone.

send the pics to me at eclipse982nr@aol.com and i will host them for you. maybe your crank gear or something isnt pushed on completely or your tensioner isnt as tight as it should be and is causing it to be a little loose or something...
send me the pics and i will host them for you so you can get a better answer.

holla

O yeah, of course you can tell by the pictures but i left the timing cover off because i read that on here that alot of people are doing that and having success. It might have something to do with it.

HERE ARE HIS PICS HE SENT ME...

Looks to me like your timing belt is not on tight enough bro. Maybe your tensioner is broke and isnt putting enough tension on the belt. Did you insert a little pin or something in the little hole when you took that off before you rebuilt the engine? Or did you leave the little pin out?

I did have the pin in the tensioner and whenever i put the tensioner on i pried up on the tensioner to tension it more and bolted it in. Then i pulled the pin out with ease, like i could have slid the pin right back in if i needed to.

SEEMS LIKE THATS YOUR PROBLEM. ITS NOT TIGHT ENOUGH. DO YOU HAVE THE TIMING BELT WRAPPED AROUND EVERYTHING RIGHT?

i thought also that that may have been my problem. But i had gone back 1/2 notch on the crank and everything lined up beautifully with the one side tite and the other that wasnt that tight until the tensioner was put on. I know that the belt is around all the components it's supposed to be around and everything seems to line up great, but there just seems to be a tiny bit to much slack in the timing belt. However i don;t know how i could get it any tighter since the tensioner is at the topmost point it can be at.

I went and took another look at it with my stepdad. He said it looks like the timing belt is on straight the way it is but if the crankgear were to move over a little then it would line up correctly on the cam gears. However, the crank gear was on like it is now before i did the rebuild and it worked fine. Also if i move the crankgear over a lil then the crank pulley wouldnt butt up against the crank exactly as it's supposed to. Any ideas.

im still on the tensioner bro.

Do the AEM gears have a 2.0 and 2.4 side? maybe the gears are on backward? Just a shot in the dark. If not it is most likely the tensioner or one of the idler's

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Ok guys heres the latest scoop and will my stupidity never cease. The adjustment part of the cam gears were not tight, whenever i went and looked at em they were both all the way in retard ::duh:: (i thought they came tight but obviously should've checked em regardless). So first thing tomorrow morning i'm gunna go ahead and take the timing belt back off. Reset the cam gears to where they're suppposed to be and retension the timing belt and see if i can't get it a little tighter also. I'll post tomorrow afternoon and let yall know how it went and whether it worked. Thanks alot for all of yalls help.

You may want to double check the cam gears that they sent you. They may have sent you the ones for the 2.4L motor. I had that happen to me and it looked just like yours does when I put them on.

Originally posted by extreme97nt
Do the AEM gears have a 2.0 and 2.4 side? maybe the gears are on backward? Just a shot in the dark. If not it is most likely the tensioner or one of the idler's

The AEMs are one sided only.

you have 2.4 cam gears. shitty. same thing happened to me with my crane gears.

i just checked the part number from aem for my car and the part number on the aem box it came in and the part numbers match up.

Now i took back off the timing belt and everything that it required. I took off one of the aem cam gears and put on one of the old ones to compare the 2. They are the exact same. They sit on there the same way and they are the same size too.

The stock cam gears can be used on a 2.0 or a 2.4. Look at both sides. If you are installing it on a 2.0, you should be able to see "2.0L FRONT" on the gear looking at it from the passanger side. If you flip the gear around, it can be used on a 2.4.

The difference is the offset.

Adjustable cam gears CANNOT be flipped like the stock ones can. Well, I guess you could, but if it was reversed it would be impossible to adjust them which would make them useless.

yeah i know, they thought that i may have gotten the aem cam gears for the 2.4. I was just comparing my old cam gears to my new ones and they are the ones for the 2.0. The model number on the cam gears even matches up to the model # at aems website. But i can tell they are the same by having one aem attahed to the head and one stock cam gear attached to the head, they sit on there exactly the same. Except for the fact that the adjustment lines are a lil off compared to the stock ones, but thats y they're adjustable i guess. Anyways, so now i'm just tryin to figure out y the belt keeps slidin towards the engine, i'm retensioning it now to see if i can get it tighter and see if that solves the prolem.

If this persists, my money would be on the crank gear. Similar thing happened the first time I rebuilt my block. but the belt walked an inch away from the head instead of towards it. You may need to just back the gear out a hair.
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maybe that is it cause i put the stock cam gears back on it, got the timing right and all, tensioned it back up, tried to start it again. Stopped and went and looked, and the belt had walked on me again. Also is there a way to test that tensioner cylinder (or whatever its called), cause that would be the only other thing i could think of.

maybe that is it cause i put the stock cam gears back on it, got the timing right and all, tensioned it back up, tried to start it again. Stopped and went and looked, and the belt had walked on me again. Also is there a way to test that tensioner cylinder (or whatever its called), cause that would be the only other thing i could think of.

maybe that is it cause i put the stock cam gears back on it, got the timing right and all, tensioned it back up, tried to start it again. Stopped and went and looked, and the belt had walked on me again. Also is there a way to test that tensioner cylinder (or whatever its called), cause that would be the only other thing i could think of.

Just shooting in the dark here. Did you check to see it the idler and tensioner bearings are in good condition and tourqed down good to the block.

The bearings are definately good and they are torqued down to the specifications in the chiltons (which is a piece of crap for our cars by the way)

Are you using a new timing belt, or the old one? If it's the old one, and it didn't do this before you took it off, then i'd say thats fine. Also if it is the old one, you should put it back on in the same direction of rotation as it was when you took it off. If its a new belt, maybe the belt is defective..Everything else has been mentioned really..just double check these things:

Tensioner plunger-be sure its actually putting tension on the belt
Idler pulley- should be no play in the bearings, and torqued down to the
head properly
Tensioner pulley-no bearing play
Tensioner pully brackt- the pulley pivots on that bracket, be sure that
there is no excessive play in that pivoting pulley bracket.
Be sure crank gear sprocket is on properly-should be *almost* touching the oil pump housing. Prob .010-.015" of an inch clearance
Check your water pump pulley to be sure it rotates smoothly, and does
wobble as it turns
Watch your cam gears as they spin. Be sure they do not wobble either, as
if they are bent.

That's really everything in the T-belt path. Just be sure you are putting 20 ft lbs of torque on the tensioner pulley as you are setting the tension and tightening down the tensioner plunger body. The plunger pin should go in and out without any binding, EVEN AFTER the motor has been rotated the 2 full turns. If not, then something isn't right, most likely the tensioner plunger itself, or you did not do the process of tensioning properly.

Its a new timing belt, the old one broke, reason for the rebuild. However, what you said about the crank gear being a lil off the oil pump, i did not do that (it's up against the oil pump) so tomorrow i'm gunna pull it out some and see if it works. i also thought that the tensioner may have been bad. I can slide the pin in and out pretty easily when everythings tight on the car, but is that how you test if its good or not. How exactly do you test it if thats not how you do it?

BTW everyone on here is so helpful, i've found out what 2 parts are and do, found out where a lone hose goes and all the help with this timing belt issue. Thanx so much for everyone being so helpful.

Originally posted by Onnoffplayer
Its a new timing belt, the old one broke, reason for the rebuild. However, what you said about the crank gear being a lil off the oil pump, i did not do that (it's up against the oil pump) so tomorrow i'm gunna pull it out some and see if it works. i also thought that the tensioner may have been bad. I can slide the pin in and out pretty easily when everythings tight on the car, but is that how you test if its good or not. How exactly do you test it if thats not how you do it? BTW everyone on here is so helpful, i've found out what 2 parts are and do, found out where a lone hose goes and all the help with this timing belt issue. Thanx so much for everyone being so helpful.

It's good that your HERE asking for help rather than goin to the dealership and spending $1000.

And yea. The people here do kick ass. If you've got a viable question and don't sound like a retard. :thumbsup

Originally posted by Onnoffplayer
Its a new timing belt, the old one broke, reason for the rebuild. However, what you said about the crank gear being a lil off the oil pump, i did not do that (it's up against the oil pump) so tomorrow i'm gunna pull it out some and see if it works. i also thought that the tensioner may have been bad. I can slide the pin in and out pretty easily when everythings tight on the car, but is that how you test if its good or not. How exactly do you test it if thats not how you do it? BTW everyone on here is so helpful, i've found out what 2 parts are and do, found out where a lone hose goes and all the help with this timing belt issue. Thanx so much for everyone being so helpful.

if you can slide the pin in and out, it's good. if your crank gear is fine, i'd try another belt.

I don't really think it's the crank gear..I mean, just by looking at it, it looks like its damn near touching the oil pump housing..I usually use the crank pulley to push on the crank gear. When the pulley is on all the way, it pushes the timing belt gear right where it needs to be.

The tensioner pin should go in and out easily AFTER you have rotated the crank 2 full revolutions to check your timing marks. If you can't get the pin to go in and out after you rotate, then the tension was not set correctly. Also, after you rotate it, the belt should be fairly tight, but with just a little bit of slack...You shouldn't be able to take the belt and move it up and down with a bunch of slack..

If all that is OK, then maybe return that timing belt and get a new one..

Its an unorthodox crank pulley, and whenever the crank sprocket was against the oil pump the crank pulley went on fully. The pulley that came off was pressed on there with no bolt to hold it in place or anything. With the new one i had to tap the inside of the crank to bolt it in place because the new pulley has a smaller hole in it instead of the hole being the size of the crank like my stock one. Even though whenever i put it on its pretty tight. Just didn't seem tight enuff.