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Hello everyone. New to the board but not cars. I currently drive a 2000 Honda Civic LX dd which just reached 232k miles. Been replacing practically everything over the few years I've had it for a DD bought at 169k.


Anyway, yesterday I completed a head gasket job on the car and various other gaskets, seals, oil and coolant change, yada yada. I used a method of suspending the timing belt in the air, look up oldskool funk on you tube to see what I mean, and everything was going good.


Unfortunately something went wrong and the belt ended up being a tooth off. The bottom is lined up at TDC but the top is off literally one tooth making the timing off altogether. I didn't realize when I slide the cam back on it wasn't perfectly lined up. My fault. The bottom was still lined up and that was foolishly the only one I looked at.


Finished everything else up and started the car and right away it's rocking and idle after a few minutes jumps from 800 to 2.5k back and fourth unless moving the car. In this case I only reversed without touching the gas just to see. Just a few feet. Check engine light is flashing. Thinking knock sensor or something?


Rotate everything back to what I thought was TDC and realized it was off. Question is, what can I do to fix this now? I've been reading and reading but everything is a how to do timing belt job, not wanting to do the whole thing again. Just had that done less than 30k ago. Is there anyway to adjust the belt and timing without removing the whole thing, etc?


I could swear I read you can put the lower gear to TDC and then loosen the tensioner up so the belt can slide off and then move the top gear to TDC, put belt back on and redo tension? Something like that.


Any help is appreciated. I don't like messing with the timing much if at all and that is why I chose to do the suspended in air method. I've literally seen this done a few times as well since the belt was recently done and not wanting to do it again. Whether or not it's stupid or wrong of me to have chose to do this I get it, really I do and that isn't my main concern to be flamed for a choice that should have worked but sadly messed up by one tooth.


Thanks in advance for any help and or ideas without doing another timing job.

 
Rep Power: 229

Timing is pretty easy, with the right tools.

Basically the belt just makes sure the top end is in the right position, while the crankshaft is rotating on the bottom end.

You'll have to read the DIY bellow for the correct procedure for a 6th gen

-But basically you find the specific cylinder which needs to be at TDC
-then insure crank pulley marks are aligned in the "up" position
(while still in TDC)
-then make sure the cam gear/gears is/are aligned properly with it's marks to the valve cover.
-then install the belt.

-find the direction of rotation of your engine then rotate the engine in this direction two full rotations; if the timing still looks good after two you should be good to go.


https://www.civicforums.com/forums/2...t-96-00-a.html

 
Rep Power: 210

You've probably heard this before: You're gonna need a bigger tool
http://www.sjmautotechnik.com/troubl...camholding.jpg Lol.