it's been a long time since I last posted on the forum but I've been checking in from time to time what'ya been doing. Before I'm gonna do anything to my D14A3 engine I wanted to change all the neccesary service bits - water pump, tensioner, sparks, distributor cap, rotor,.....cause the car just hit 100k km.
Everything went as it should except the for the timing belt. Before I write any further I hope this is the right area for this post.
So here we go. The part I hate the most is this - a friend helped me with this and the removed the plastic covers before I could see how the timing was set before we removed the timing belt -> a stupid thing that I plan to never let it happen again arggh
So I changed the water pump and tensioner and positioned the new tensioner in the lowest possible position (so I would have enough slack to put the timing belt on). I aligned the 7 o'clock pointer to the arrow on the cover like in this pic ->
![Image](http://www.dodo-upgrades.nl/cityme_bestanden/image006.jpg)
I used a piece of paper and put it on the mark (line) on the camshaft pulley and turned the pully until it aligned with the peak point of the arrow on the plastic cover. This was for the 7 o'clock pointer. Then I checked the 9 and 3 o'clock pointer with a mirror and actually they are aligned with the head. The pointer on the plastic cover on the side are a bit off but reading the Honda manual the 3 and 9 o'clock pointer should be level with the surface of the head. Right?
So the camshaft sprocket was aligned and I put on the lower plastic and bolted it on so it wouldn't move and stay in the same place all the time. Then I put on the pulley and turned the crankshaft until the white mark on the pulley aligned with the "pointer" on the lower plastic cover which I put on moments before. So timing all done -> according to Honda manual and Haynes. The only problem is I can't get the timing belt on O_o
I did it just like Honda states to do it - first over the crankshaft sprocket - tight, then over the tensioner, over the water pump and then over the camshaft sprocket and it just won't go on. When I tension, just a bit, the slack side (the one from the crank sprocket to the cam sprocket - the long side) and pull a bit on the tension side it still won't go on. It's off by half a tooth or so :/
It only will go on if I pull so hard that the crank moves and the timing is off or it'll go on only so that the slack side is really slacky and when I tension the belt the alignment is off again. Really busting my balls with this and really angry with myself that I didn't look how the timing was before I removed the old timing belt.
I searched the interner for a solution but on some websites (eHow and sh#$t) it's described easier than taking a du**. Finally watched some videos on youtube just to find out that everytime someone is putting on the timing belt the video flashes and it's already on.
The only usable link I found until now is this -> http://www.hondafan.ro/forum/showthread ... ping-heads
Bringing me to you and asking for help. Especially this was interesting ->
Could someone please help me with this?Looking closer to the cam gear when mounted you will see it is impossible to align the crank at TDC and the cam at the 3 or 9 O’clock marks.
Thanks!
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/icon_e_wink.gif)