timing belt woes

[nuclearpenguin]

This car has been a nightmare this week, so here's my latest troubles:

I tracked down my issues to cam timing (i'm probably a tooth off) and noticed my belt was darn near falling off the idler pulley so I started pulling apart the timing side of the motor so I could figure out what the deal is. Once I got down to the nitty gritty, I was trying to line my timing marks up, and I have a few questions:
#1: Everywhere I read says you need the no. 1 cylinder at TDC on the compression stroke. Does it HAVE to be the compression stroke and if so, how can I tell that from the exhaust stroke?
#2: I was turning the crank (with the belt still on and the tensioner still on) clockwise, trying to line up the marks, and now I can't get it to turn any further. The cam gears are definitely turning with the crank so what am I doing wrong? My buddy got under there and gave it a good jerk and it just seems to be turning the crankshaft sprocket bolt. Any ideas?
#3: I at first thought it was my tensioner, when I had my buddy's coworker do the timing belt this past weekend, I had ordered a 7-bolt tensioner and only once we pulled mine off did we realize my motor is 6-bolt (I read the vfaq backwards ). Anyways I had no choice but to have him reuse my old tensioner. I figured once I started having these issues, that the old tensioner we reused must be at fault, but the belt is tight on\around the tensioner pulley, its most loose between the idler pulley and the intake cam and the idler pulley and the crankshaft gear. What would cause this?

Thanks

 

[Strm Trpr]

There should not be any slack in the areas that you mentioned.

The timing belt is supposed to be put on over the intake cam sprocket first.
then tightly down and around the idler pulley,
then tightly around the oil pump sprocket,
then tightly around the crankshaft sprocket,
then tightly around the tensioner pulley.
Now grab a 17mm wrench and turn the exhaust cam clockwise to align the timing marks,
and slip the belt over the exhaust sprocket.
Then go about setting the tension on the tensioner pulley and getting the push rod set to the correct height.

The VFAQ says to give it a CCW 45* rotation at the crank, then turn it CW for 6 complete crank revolutions til all timing marks line up.

 

[nuclearpenguin]

There should not be any slack in the areas that you mentioned.

The timing belt is supposed to be put on over the intake cam sprocket first.
then tightly down and around the idler pulley,
then tightly around the oil pump sprocket,
then tightly around the crankshaft sprocket,
then tightly around the tensioner pulley.
Now grab a 17mm wrench and turn the exhaust cam clockwise to align the timing marks,
and slip the belt over the exhaust sprocket.
Then go about setting the tension on the tensioner pulley and getting the push rod set to the correct height.

The VFAQ says to give it a CCW 45* rotation at the crank, then turn it CW for 6 complete crank revolutions til all timing marks line up.

That'll help alot. Now if I can just get the crank to turn far enough .

Also, it was fine when he put the timing belt on this weekend, why would it go whack now? Would a weak tensioner cause the idler pulley side to go loose?