Topic

After a lot of swearing I have achieved what is in the photos and it appears to me if I take it back one tooth on the crank I will be in the same position but with the crank aligning to the right of the mark instead of the left. The problem seemed to be that with all the marks perfectly aligned the righthand side of the belt was slack making it impossible to fit the belt HELP

Hi I had very similar prob;em and for the life of me I couldn't get that long r/h side tight, so the cam wheels lined up the crank was out by about a tooth.
Hope this makes sense: I fitted cam belt around tensioner, water pump and around both cam wheels (Locked). I found by sliding on about half the width was workable and with the bottom of the belt pulled like crazy to get the r/hand side tight and on the crank pulley. I set the belt back onto all pulleys and tensioner etc, and it lined up.

Thanks for coming back I have tried pulling the belt tight to fit it but other than using a tyre lever (defo a no no) I cant do it it's only half a tooth out, as the cams have twice the teeth of the crank one tooth on them is half a tooth on the crank.
I think this is the answer but can't figure out how to do it, should I mark the belt and pulleys with tippex then refit the belt using these marks but moving both cams one tooth out, will this bring it into line? I can only see it as the cam marks (which your can only really see in a mirror) are slightly out of line but I'm not sure.

I had rubbed my fingers raw trying to fit that belt and then setting the tension. To say I lost my temper is an understatement. Make sure you get the cam locking piece fully inserted between the cam wheels. Trust me they do line up, I started to chase after, maybe if I set the cam wheels slightly off it will come back. I found it was the slack I had in the long right-hand side of the cam belt that threw it all out. Eliminate that, and the marks in all three places line up.

All done now, thanks a lot for the help it's a doddle when you know the trick, started up right away and sounds sweet but noisy perhaps I better put the engine cover and sound proofing back in:lol:

There are few greater senses of relief than hearing an engine start up sweetly after a cam belt change. Relax! you've earned a beer.