1G Timing marks not lining up

[2ndGen]

Ok so I have everything off that I need to replace my timing belt, however the timing marks are not lining up correctly. I had the belt replaced by a mechanic before hand and the car does run good and sounds great and starts up quick. And YES I did turn the engine up to six times to get the marks aligned, however the camshaft marks line up but not the bottom marks (crank oil and balance shaft). I have turned the engine over and over in vain. When the bottom marks line up the camshaft marks do not line up, and visa versa. What should I do? Ill upload some photos of the marks when the camshaft marks are aligned. Should I have the top camshaft marks aligned perfectly and just re align the bottom ones? will it be ok if i take off the belt with the top marks aligned and the bottom ones off and just fix the bottom marks? Or just keep everything exactly the way it is with the new belt?

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[DSM1G90]

We all know that the teeth of the belt is our friend since the teeth are at perfect pitch with all of the sprockets. Thus, it's really a no-brainer to get the belt in time if all of the factors are in accurate order.

What I do on a DSM belt : lay the belt across the cam sprockets and use a clothespin to hold the belt on one sprocket-the one that is aligned with the top of the block. Then roll the cams with the two, 17mm wrenches so the marks align up perfectly, then clothespin the belt to the other sprocket since it will fall into place with the correct tension and distance.

What do we have here - " 'Wow' cam sprockets perfectly timed between clothespins"" !. Now, go lace up the lower half of the motor - get the marks all aligned up correctly (and right at first, it's not going to align up due to the autotensioner not set correctly and properly) , take the clothespins off (or bulldog clips) and do the auto tensioner thing within specs.

When you do, those marks should all fall into place. Let it sit for a while (have lunch, walk away or similar) and do the six rotation thingey.

If all is good, put it back together and have fun driving.

-good luck - DSM

 

[JusMX141]

What I do when I'm by myself with the engine still in the car.

- Put the belt over the two cam gears with the marks perfectly aligned. You generally need to pull the exhaust cam toward the firewall one tooth in order for the gears to align perfectly.

- Put one zip-tie at the outer edge of each gear, holding the belt to the gear so neither the belt or the gear can slip.

- Work the back side of the belt over the tensioner, and continue on to the crank pulley.

- Work the belt around the crank gear with the alignment mark still aligned correctly.

- Work the belt around the oil pump gear- you can make any last corrections to the oil pump gear alignment because the slack in the belt will still be on the side nearest the firewall. When you do this, the oil pump gear is going to look like it's out of alignment to the clockwise side a bit (I think it's clockwise if my memory serves me). Don't panic- the next step will bring it back into alignment without even trying.

- Lastly, slip the back side of the belt over the idler pulley nearest the firewall as illustrated in red up in post #12.



If you do it this way, 95% of the time everything should be lined up perfectly when you tighten the eccentric on the tensioner pulley and there's no chance the belt will slip off the cam gears. I think the last three or four timing jobs I did were all aligned correctly the very first try. Perhaps it's too much practice, or just knowing what to expect.