Hi All,

I am working on installing the timing belt on my 2000 Honda CRV. I installed the new belt and set the tensioner to 40 foot pounds and then cranked the engine 6 times, loosened the tensioner, cranked to 3 teeth on the camshaft. I then tried rotating my engine and now the camshaft and crankshaft are very much out of sync. I did not feel any resistance when rotating the engine. Can anyone recommend what I can do to fix this? I don't want to destroy my engine.

Thanks,

h.ubk

 

Whenever I do a t-belt replacement, I set the engine to TDC, and then I take a silver sharpie or white out pen or something and paint 1 tooth on each gear, and the tooth on the old belt on either side of that tooth. I then lay out the old belt and new belt together, count from tooth-to-tooth, and paint the new belt to match the old belt. When the new belt goes on, I simply fit the belt on so the painted cog teeth fall between the painted belt teeth, and then you can't miss! This obviously doesn't help you for this job because you're well past this point, but something to keep in mind for the next belt job.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "loosened the tensioner, cranked to 3 teeth on the camshaft". Do you mean you loosened the belt and then adjusted ONLY the cams by 3 teeth? If that's the case then yes, it will definitely fall out of time. When I do my belt replacements I always crank the engine over a few times to verify that time is held, but if it holds I never loosen and re-tension the tensioner. I suggest you set everything to TDC again. If something doesn't line up, take off your belt, line up your pulleys again, and re-set the belt.

Just FYI, you have to be off by more than a tooth to damage your engine. I've missed by a tooth and the vehicle even idled ok for a bit, but it won't drive well and once warm, it'll idle poorly too. Sometimes when you remove the old belt, one of the cams will shift just a hair in one direction or another due to spring pressure and you'll go "****! Which way did it move?!". If you rack it back a tooth to set the belt and you picked the wrong direction, it'll just run poorly. It won't be the end of the world. You will, however, have to pull it all back apart again. You'll be amazed how quickly you can do it the second time though!! Back to the first sentence, if you paint your teeth accordingly before removing the belt, you'll never have this problem.