I am confident that I got the engine at TDC, will close anyway. I got the timing marks lined up perfectly. I placed the bottom cover and crank pulley back on and it looks like I am about 15 deg retarded. My TDC indicator, a piece of stiff cu wire proves that that when the timing marks are lined up the engine is about 15 deg beyond TDC. Is this correct??? In any case I have the cogs in the belt counted and everything well marked. In reality, I think the the cam gear and the crank can be in any position as long as the the new belt is put back in the same position as the old.

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Tom F '95 945, lein holder on a '95-944Ti, & RIP '78-245

i think you have a bad crank pulley, i just got caught on a 850 with a bad crank pulley, the elastemer goes bad and the outer half spins

Yes, that was and is a strong possibility. This photo shows the alignment off, that 15 deg. I have a straight edge in the mounting grove and I drew a straight line on the 0 deg axis. The rubber looks good except that there is a split seam that looks like it could have been molded in. That may be the failure point. This looks like it would fail in a very slow mode.
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Tom F '95 945, lein holder on a '95-944Ti, & RIP '78-245