I'm new to this forum and my first question was about why I broke my timing belt cover when I removed it. I want to relate my experience on this mechanical endeavor and thank those who responded. Thank you. Overall the only problem I encountered was in trying to remove the lower timing cover. In trying to get it by the radius rod I broke it. Well, Honda had them in stock, so I guess I'm not the first to break the d--n thing. I purchased it from Manachester Honda online. (I can't say enough good things about Manchester Honda. I called them and the tech made sure I got the rubber seal also. I built this car from salvage and I bought all my parts from them. They're great! Try them.) The first thing I would do next time is remove the radius rod. I did that so as to ease the installation of the cover and it helped immensely. There is not a lot of room between the driver side uni-body and the timing cover. The installation of the belts, and water pump were straight forward. One note of interest is the Honda Shop Manual procedure for adjusting the timing belt and balance belt tensioner. The manual instructs to turn the engine over by hand 5 revolutions to seat the belt. They don't say which way to turn it. In the picture the arrow says rotation and shows a counter clockwise direction. For the adjustment you loosen the tensioner lock nut 2/3 to 1 turn and turn the engine counter clockwise 3 teeth on the belt. It doesn't depict if it's the rotation for the initial 5 turns or the movement of the 3 teeth for the adjustment. Let me clarify because the picture in the manual only says "direction of rotation". When viewing the engine from the driver side wheel well rotate the engine clockwise 5 turns to set the belt then loosen the adjustment nut, rotate the engine counter clockwise 3 teeth on the timing belt and lock the nut. reassembly was easy without the radius rod in the way. I put the lower cover on from the bottom and got on top to see what was restricting it and flexed it just a bit and pulled it up. It was set. Everything else went back together easily. The whole job took me 9 hours over a few days. If I did it again it would probably take half that time. Obviously I don’t spend a lot of time on this forum because I have a Honda but this forum is great. I spend a lot of time on the forum for my other car, a Corvette. What can I say?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Tom96Accord &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">... When viewing the engine from the driver side wheel well rotate the engine clockwise 5 turns to set the belt then loosen the adjustment nut, rotate the engine counter clockwise 3 teeth on the timing belt and lock the nut...</TD></TR></TABLE>I thought you only EVER want to turn it counter-clockwise, the direction it runs. I guess you're lucky if it didn't jump a tooth while turning it backwards.

 

JimBlake is correct. Your only supposed to turn the motor counter-clockwise. In the manual it does say counter-clockwise.

You don't need to remove the radius rod. It can be moved around to make it past, you just need to be patient and figure it out. With the radius rod removed it does make that one part easier but it does not need to be done.