So tonight was my second evening I spent failing to get my timing belt installed on my H23. I've done the search thing, and not found anything that exactly addresses what I'm running into. When I try installing the belt, I either:

1) can install it fine on all the gears, but then there's too much slack between the cam gears. It jumps teeth when I try the tensioning procedure described in the manual.

2) Sometimes I can get the tension to where it seems right, but then i'm not able to get the belt over the water pump gear. I spend a couple minutes trying, then something goes off kilter (crank turns, cam gear jumps a tooth, etc).

What's the trick? I must be doing something fundametally wrong.

FYI, motor is out of the car and on a stand.

Thanks.

 

Loosen the tensioner bolt before you put the belt on. Once it's on, turn the crank pulley a quater turn or so, then tighten up the tensioner bolt. The belt should remains tight after that, if not, your tensioner spring might be too loose.

 

Thanks ...yeah the problem is the way it's worked so far, when turning the crank pulley to adjust the tension, the timing belt skips a tooth on the cam gear (usually the intake cam). So something is going wrong with the installation of the belt itself, before I even get to the tensioning part.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by phil2000 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Thanks ...yeah the problem is the way it's worked so far, when turning the crank pulley to adjust the tension, the timing belt skips a tooth on the cam gear (usually the intake cam). So something is going wrong with the installation of the belt itself, before I even get to the tensioning part.</TD></TR></TABLE>
The tensioner should be taking up the slack before you turn the crank. Don't turn the engine backward.

 

Maybe I wrote that badly. Yes, I understand not to turn the engine backwards, and I understand the tensioning procedure. I'm following Helm's to a T....which is why I'm confused.

 

Maybe you should tighten the tensioner right after you put on the belt. Do the turn slowly, then loosen the bolt to let the tensioner do the work, then tighten it again. If that still doesn't work, you might have bought too long of a belt.