Well, just bought the car a little while ago and decided it would be a good idea to change the timing belt (well my dad did~cars only got 85k on it). Make a long story short, we followed the Helms manual and it said to torque the bottom pulley on your timing belt to about 40 n/m. We did it all the way the book said...and me and my father both drove it around the block when we were through to make sure it was ok. Next morning I was taking a movie back to blockbuster (about 5 miles up the road) and I turn into the parking lot and hear something scraping the ground after a loud thud....I stoped, turned the car off and look under it, and what do i see but that damn pulley (the one with the harmonic balancer and the marks for setting the timing) on the damn ground!!!!! AHHH!!! had to go back up to honda and get a new keyway and a new bolt...sorry for the rant..has this happend to anyone else???

 

This may sound stupid, but did you get 40 n/m confused with ft./lbs. or maybe even in/lbs. this could have made a huge difference.

 

I have the Helm's manual you're referring to and I'm almost positive the torque spec is 130 ft-lbs. Not sure what that is in nM but it's definitely more than 40. I'll double check. Someone can probably confirm this for us if they've got the manual in front of them.

 

http://www.c-speedracing.com/howto/t...elt/tbelt.html ...... hope this helps if your doing it for a dohc motor.

 

130ftlbs

 

your right its definatley around 130-150 ft/lbs... not 40

 

mmmk...got it all fixed now. The original spec was 20 n/m (newton meters) and thats what i tightened it to. (my dad used to be a helicopter mechanic for the marines and nothing like this has ever happend to any of our cars with us doing all of our own work.) Payed honda 14 dollars for a bolt and a keyway (raped me but what can i do really??) and with the bolt came a peice of paper saying that it should have been tightened to 26 n/m instead of 20. Been driving on it for about 100 miles and I think it's going to be ok now. Im just glad it didnt skip me out of time and bend valves!!! Thanks for your help guys!