I put on a new headgasket today. I went to put the timing belt back on and there is allot of tension on the belt. However I can work the belt off the cam gears with my hands. I can't figure out what is going on. Any suggestions welcome. Yes the tensioner is tightened.

 

The book says rotate the crank 3 times around by hand, loosen the tensioner and re-tighten it. rotate the crank

Work's for me every time. Sometimes you need to repeat the process.

 

Did that a couple of times.

 

If this is a b-series.

1) Install the belt and push the tensioner by hand to add tension, tighten the tensioner bolt.
2) Rotate the crank 3 revolutions to seat the belt.
3) Get back to TDC on cyl. 1, make sure all timing marks are timed correctly.
4) Loosen tensioner bolt and rotate the crank so 3 teeth on the cam pulley move.
5) Tighten the tensioner bolt.

 

Just spoke to my tuner and he suggested the same thing. Thanks for the help guys. I can always count on HT.

 

I also learned last night the book says 4-6 rotations fora B series, page 6-9 thru 6-12.

I got a link to the manuals on here from another thread on here, but I can't find it now. But I did get the manual from http://www.hondahookup.com in the manuals forum link.

 

The key is to rotate 3 teeth while the tensioner bolt is LOOSE. That is what takes up the slack on the long side between the exhaust cam gear and the crank pulley.