So I replaced my timing belt, water pump, tensioner pulley, and spring on my b18c5 but I'm having way too many problems trying to get this thing right. First of all, its a auto tensioner and I know the way to tighten them. But I tried prying with a screwdriver to get it a little tighter and I started up my car and the belt started to hum and vibrate. So I figured it was too tight.

From there, I set the motor at TDC, and loosened the tensioner bolt 1/2 turn. Rotated the crankshaft counterclockwise so the camshaft pulleys rotated 3 teeth. And then tightened up the tensioner. It still seems too loose. At TDC from here, the belt between the two camshaft pulleys can be pushed down like .5", and the belt can be twisted almost but not quite 90 degrees between the intake camshaft pulley and the water pump, and the exhaust camshaft pulley and the crank.

How do I know when its tight enough? I really dont want to mess anything up but there's like no way to tell if its tight enough when you've never done this before.

 

putting wrenches on the cam gear while tensioning will get the slack out from between the cam gears.

 

put a 14 on the intake gear and apply pressure on it while rotating the crank counterclockwise 3 teeth from TDC, keep the pressure on the cam while tightening the tensioner...

 

alright thanks, im going to go try that