I just replaced the front balance shaft seal on my 93 accord EX and I've been feeling more vibrations so I'm thinking I must've had the pulleys out of sync when I put the balance belt back on.

As far as I know you can't remove the upper side cover without removing the valve cover, and I'd prefer not to do that. Has anybody ever removed the lower side cover while the upper side cover was still on?

 

You need to remove the balance shaft belt to retime the front and rear balance shaft pulleys correctly. You can't do that without removing the valve cover.

In fact, removing the valve cover is really the least of your problems right now.

 

Could you elaborate?

As I explained I just replaced my front balance shaft seal which involved removing my crankshaft pulley, valve cover, driver side engine mount and both side covers to access the front balance shaft. During that process I didn't see how my valve cover was related to the balance shaft belt other than the fact that it holds the upper side cover in place. What am I missing?

 

I just finished readjusting the balance belt and did not need to remove the upper side cover from the engine or the valve cover. I removed the bolts from the upper cover which made it bend at the bottom enough for me to get the lower cover in and out without much trouble. The vibrations are gone.