Timing Belt Question

Hey TW,

I did a valve clearance adjustment, cleaned Fuel Injectors, replaced wiring connectors for FI's, and replaced all the rubber things(gasket/Oring etc.). Got everything back together and cranked, but wound up being out of time by a few teeth.

I took the cams off to do the valve shims, so the timing belt got loosened by removing the tensioner and camshaft pulleys. Now I can't get the last drive side camshaft pulley mounted to the cam properly with the TB on it. Really close but not quite enough slack. I'm using binder clips to keep tension on the passenger side cam pulley and pulling. hard. lol. I did the TB 30k miles ago, no issues.

Any recommendations or tricks I'm not thinking of? Maybe I should remove the lower timing cover and be more thorough on getting the teeth around the crankshaft, or can I get away with what I have disassembled now? I was hoping not to disassemble more just because of a valve adjustment.



Cheers!

 

I usually cheat by removing the idler puller, put the belt under it, and put the pulley back on. I've always been able to engage the threads on the idler bolt safely even under some tension from the belt.

 

^^ This, it works every time in this situation.

 

A zip tie or two to keep the belt on the pulleys will free up a hand or 2.

 

Gentlemen, this worked great. Thanks!

I was able to get in time after having the missed tooth one more time after installing the tensioner(^%%@ tensioner...). The second time was perfect after 6 manual cranks. I'm getting better at this tensioner thing though pah.

 

My man! I'm glad you got it back together.

 

I'm sure what you did works 99% of the time. I'm OCD and would have spent the 1 hour to remove the lower timing cover instead.