96 H23A1

I just put my cylinder head back on and also installed a new timing belt, but for the life of me I cant get it to be tight, it just has way too much slack I think, between the cams I have about a 1/4"slack, between the exhaust cam and the crankshaft I have 1/2".. I have all data and it says to tighten the timing belt, position engine at TDC loosen adjusting nut 2/3-1 turn and than tighten it, turn crank counter clockwise until camshaft moves 3 teeth and loosen and tighten adjusting nut again.. I have done this twice and the slack seems to be the same..

are the springs on the timing belt pulley too weak/worn? I didnt replace the pulley, would replacing it make it tighter?

thanks

 

Sounds like you are following the proper procedure. After you turn the motor over 3 teeth and loosen the adjusting nut again you should see the tensioner pulley move up slightly under the force of the spring. Are you seeing this happen? Make sure the tensioner pulley can move freely when you loosen the adjusting nut.

 

No I dont see the pulley move or being pulled by the springs, when I had the timing belt off and the adjusting nut loose I tested it and it could move freely! I will loosen the adjusting nut tomorrow and test it with the Tbelt on it but it might be at the lowest point already and I might not be able to move it! I am going to get the two springs from the dealer anyways and hope thats it

 

You leave the nut loose, turn 3 teeth THEN tighten the adjusting nut.

 

Not if you are following the directions in the service manual. Refer to page 129 in the link below.

http://prelude.openbarr.com/manuals/4th_gen/

Set cylinder #1 to TDC --> loosen and tighten adjusting nut --> rotate counterclockwise 3 teeth --> loosen and tighten adjusting nut again

 

Just the way I've done it before and it worked, maybe the spring on his is just worn out?

 

More than likely the spring was stretch beyond its elastic limit at some point. I would imagine that replacing the spring will solve the problem. To the original post, did you take the spring off at some point and play with it (stretch it too much) which may have altered the spring constant?

 

Vibrant sells an aftermarket piece to remove the slack. It is very common and hard to get rid of even with a manual tensioner.

I also think it accounts for some of the idle issues that we seem to plagued with....

 

^Not sure though if their kit really does anything for a stock engine, only people I've seen run them are those with large cams who had problems only with belt slapping between the exhaust and crank gears.

 

thanks for all the replies guys, I loosened the adjusting bolt than turned cams 3 teeth than tightened the adjusting bolt and that seemed to work better... I did this 3 times at least though. on the balancer belt tensioner I just loosened the adjusting bolt and pressed down on the tensioner by hand and than tightened the adjusting bolt, this took a few tries as well and by the end the spring for the balancer belt was just loosely hanging on so I just removed since it could have came off and damaged one of the belts!!

thanks again hope this helps someone in tha futua

 

You can also "help" the spring a little if you think there's too much slack when following the standard procedure. Just reach down and pull up on the bearing a little as you tighten the nut.

 

On the longest part of the belt, you should be able to give it a quarter turn or 90 degrees. heres a Honda timing belt video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kvfko3kp-zg