Simpson5774

I have decided to do a timing belt on my car, its got 239k, winter is coming up, I personally put 3.5 years and 50k onto the car after getting it at 189k, no idea when it was done last, bla bla bla.

Full disclosure, this is my first time doing a project this deep, to me, Hondas seem pretty straight forward, plenty of guides out there, so why not DYI (also cost)

Ether the tentioner is bad or the belt has slipped teeth or whatever but it would appear that the timing is muliple degrees off when I get #1 cyl on TDC, even worse when cranking on the crank bolt, despite using the special honda tool to keep everything in place, there is enough 'flex' in the timing belt to keep everything from being aligned if I take the harmonic balancer off.

My question is, what is the procedure to get everything aligned up when I get the new belt on? I know once I put everything back together to hand crank the motor to make sure valves don't run into the piston, but how do I make sure the timing is right once everything goes back on and its all bolted together. I know I will need a timing light but at that point the car is already put back together.

I am gonna keep searching the net, but any help is much appreciated.

ezone

I'll suggest you obtain a real service manual. Most of your answers are in it.


Why?

HerpDerp1919

I have a 1998 1.6 non vtec. Its all pretty easy. To set the timing: Take off the upper timing belt cover, or the whole timing belt cover off. Either way works. Put your 17mm socket on the crankshaft bolt and turn it counter clock wise (a guide i watched said only go counter clockwise.) on the cam pulley, it will say "UP" make that be up. there is timing marks on the back of that pulley. Line that up with the edges of the block, i used a razor blade to make sure they were lined up. Then slip the belt off the cam pulley. Now if you go down to the crankshaft pulley (youll need the belt off to do this) You will see a mark on he crank pulley (NOT the harmonic balancer) Then if you look behind the crank pulley you will see an arrow. make sure the line on the crankshaft pulley is lined up with the arrow. then everything will be back in time. I do agree with ezone that an actual service manual will help tremendously but also just watching some youtube videos is a great help as well.

these are some of the guides i watched/read

This is Cleft Asunder's walkthrough
https://www.civicforums.com/forums/2...96-00-a-2.html

Simpson5774

Hey thanks, I realized this about an hour after making this post. I found a pic out of the honda service manual which broke that down. I watched a few different videos on this, but maybe not closely enough if that one had talked about the mark on the crank side. I was just concerned that the belt and the cam was what I had to go by. I haven't gotten everything 100% disassembled yet as I am still waiting for my damn timing belt kit, fedex is letting me down.

HerpDerp1919

Good deal. Well best of luck. My timing belt job sucked. I now found the reason he sold it so cheap, just about every bolt was seized or stripped. Makes for a 13 hour timing belt change lol