Hello,

I just replaced my cam seals, and I am reusing the old timing belt. I cannot for the life of me get the stupid thing on. All my tension ends up between the crank and the intake cam. Then that leaves no tension for the tensioner area. What am I doing wrong?? I am not a body builder, but I feel as if I have enough strength to pull the belt taught. I just can’t maintain it from the crank to the intake cam. What is the secret? Should I get a new belt? I figure the old one would be nice and stretched and would go right back on.

First off--I have to admit--although I've done a zillion B21/23/230 timing belts (maybe a slight exaggeration) I've only done one (my 2002 S40) of the newer motors. It would seem to me, being that you feel you have to "stretch" the belt from the crank to the intake cam, you are leaving that part for last. The belt tensioner, being on the exhaust cam side, should be the last area. Question - have you relaxed the tensioner completely? I think you need to start the belt on the crank, run it over the intake cam, the exhaust cam and then slip it over the front (of the car) gears with the tensioner relaxed. It took me a few tries and rereading directions over and over before figuring out how the tensioner works. Another question - given the nature of the TB job and the minimal cost of a new belt - why on earth would you reinstall the old belt? -- Dave

Old belt is fine and unscathed, so I just thought I’d reuse it. I might end up calling around to see if there’s a new one available.

Anyway, the tensioner is all the way relaxed with the pin installed. I’m starting on the crankshaft and running it up the right side toward the intake cam. That’s where I can’t get my slack built. If I don’t pull it taught, there’s a bunch of slack leftover on that side, and then it leaves no slack to slip it over the tensioner. I literally have like a half a centimeter to get the right tension.

The last thing I can think of is that it slipped off a tooth on the crank. I can take the lower cover off and see if it’s hung up down there.

I just don’t know how to build and maintain the tension coming from crank to intake cam. My dad suggested getting it on and then rotating it a little to sort of sit things right.

Check the belt under the crankshaft. It is probably hung up on a bolt head.
If you don't know when the belt was changed, I recommend changing the belt, the
waterpump and the bearings.

Jimo

I know when the belt was changed. Everything looked fine under there.

I managed to get the belt on. It was a sneaky and probably dumb way to do it, but I have two kids and only the weekend evenings for this project. I pulled the tensioner off altogether and slipped the belt on just fine. Then, I ended up loosening the bolts on the cam gears and turning them to meet the teeth of the belt as I had it pulled taught. Then I turned the gears to pull some extra tension, then tightened the bolts. Then I finagled the tensioner back on. Convoluted? Yes. Probability of messing up timing? Medium. Does the car run just fine? You bet.

Thanks to everyone for your responses! This forum and the people in it rock.