Timing Belt Alignment Question

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Texasknowhow

Texasknowhow

10 Year
Joined
May 11, 2012
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19
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216
Location
Texas!
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Guys, this is my first Timing Belt Replacement on the 100s (2003, 195K mi, 2UZ-FE). Everything seems pretty straight forward; I'll post up a video of this job soon, but the alignment of the Timing Belt. I bought a Aisin Prepackaged kit for this job that includes the tensioner, idler, water pump and belt. I also replaced the fan support bracket and pulley and put in a new blue Aisin fan clutch.


The problem is every time I lined everything up with the alignment marks on the belt and with the pullies in the TDC positions (or the TB positions) the crank shaft was just not there after two turns. It was always shy of where it should be by about 3/4"-1" as if it needed to turn that much more to get in alignment. I pulled the belt back off, re-compressed my tensioner rod and tried again (twice more)!


Every time the same. So I ended up following the process, but putting the crank off one tooth on the belt further in its clockwise travel (looking at the front of the engine). And it all lines up! What gives?


I've verified that cylinder #1 in in the compression stroke, and the two cams are aligned with the TDC marks when the crank is now at TDC mark. And rotated the engine multiple times to verify that...

Am I missing something else guys? About to fire it up and see...
 
You might of had slack on the wrong side of the belt, I would of put the belt on anticlockwise from the crank and keeping it tight so that the slack ends up at the tensioner, then pulled the pin.
 
What Julian said.

Also, make sure it isn't jumping a tooth when you release the pin. Someone on here had a pic wherein they used a couple of spring clamps to hold the belt on the cam pulleys.
 
What if I have the belt on with the wrong edge next to the engine? Are these directional (like will it hurt it if I have it this way)? That may throw it off one tooth if it is. The timing marks are good, I'm sure of it. Now just worried that the belt may be rotating in the backward direction as the motor runs. If it's not directional, I'm good and I'm not changing it. I need to find out if it is.
 
It didn't move when I released the tensioner's pin. I have video of this and the entire installation. The only think I can think of is that I have it backwards on the pulleys. I.e. The little alignment arrows on the belt that help with this installation are a line across the belt with a little arrow head on one edge. I put this towards the engine as I thought it was good to have it pointing at the "v" notch on the back side of the pulleys. Maybe these arrows go on pointing out at you... That may change the tooth count between the right hand cam pulley and the crank... because it is what was going between the lefthand cam and the crank. I think I'll take it all off and flip it. What's another couple of hours at this point. haha
 
Somebody said in a post: " the arrows point to the stupid guy doing the job" and I'll never forget it. It does matter.

A.J
 
I'm a dork... I put the "LC" alignment mark (left cam) on the pulley at my left hand (which is the right cam) and visa-versa... Oh well, will be a good reminder on the video so others won't fall into this and waste their time too... Not sure if it will shorten it's life to run it this way, but I'm not taking chances and I haven't put the coolant back in at this point so it's not that difficult to swap around. I bet it will line up now... haha. Mystery solved.
 
aljollano said:
Somebody said in a post: " the arrows point to the stupid guy doing the job" and I'll never forget it. It does matter.

A.J
Click to expand...
If it's directional I agree it may matter and shorten the life of the belt. I like the reminder phrase, going to add that to the video!
 
trizzo said:
looking forward to seeing this video @Texasknowhow
Click to expand...
I have so much raw footage it will take me a while to get it all Texasknowhow ready... but will be a good one I think. May help someone. I found a youtube video of a guy changing one on a Tundra and it was similar, but the LC has some differences and I wanted to put my take on it. Back to wrenching I go...
 
UPDATE: all is good guys. The vehicle is totally done and running great. That belt lined up super fast when I spun it around! I think I was just tired Sunday night and feeling the pressure to finish and made the mistake of putting it on that way. Also, the words "Mitsubishi" read nicely when it was backwards which helped me make the mistake... they are backwards now... Will get the video posted up as soon as I can find time to post-process all the raw footage. Take care guys, Clay
 
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