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Honda civic 2004, I got all my marks lined up. Tried putting the new timing belt on and in the process it shifted the pulley a couple inches counterclockwise. So I re-align the pulley twisting it back clockwise to the arrow and no matter how hard I try I cannot get the arrow aligned with the mark perfectly when I get the Timing belt on. I am about 1/16 of an inch off on the pulley mark everytime. I've tried about 15 times to get it perfectly aligned but no luck yet.

Thoughts?

 
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. The distance between 2 teeth on the timing belt is greater than 1/16 inch. Install that belt.

 
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So I installed it, wrapped it up, turned it on!

Thing I noticed, when I rev the accelerator and let it go there is around a 1 second delay for it to come back down and the accelerator is a little more touchy in general.....i really wish something would work flawlessly on the first install just once.....

Any ideas?

EDIT: I did a complete new swap of belts including Timing Belt, alternator belt, serpentine, water pump, tensioner.

 
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....i'm honestly scared to take this for a drive because I dont want to screw something up even more but maybe that will help me diagnose more clearly as to whether that 16th of an inch ended up screwing me over. Will Update.

 
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UPDATE: So I took her out for a test drive. I went up 70mph and could tell any difference in power. Went Up a hill, felt great. Drove around for 5 minutes, didnt really notice anything. But then I parked at my house, hit the accelerator, and same deal except this time, not only was there a 1 second delay for rpm to come back down but then it would sometimes dip too low to almost stalling. So maybe this is happening because my alternator belt isn't tight enough?

Any Ideas?

 
Rep Power: 224

Alternator belt is fine, if it were too loose you would be hearing it squeal as it slipped.

Was the timing belt/water pump replaced? Or was this a head gasket job? Was the coolant properly bled? Could be a dirty/sticking IACV. Pull it off and try cleaning it.

 
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After installing the timing belt and before installing the upper timing cover, you were supposed to roll the crank 6x, finishing at TDC, and confirm the timing marks were aligned when done. Was this step completed?

 
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Alternator bolts are tight? (critical step)
Vacuum leak?

 
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I replaced everything new. New Timing belt, new water pump, and belts just because I was due for a change. I will definitely learn about the IACV and go about checking it. I appreciate it.

EDIT: As for the coolant, I just dumped it all out and once everything was wrapped I got a gallon of purified water and put it down the radiator for now just so it has something to work with while I'm working on the vehicle.

 
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I really appreciate the help. I actually followed a 1A-Auto tutorial on youtube and only rolled the crank 360 degrees 2 times with the belt on. Once I did all the marks were nearly perfect. (16th of an inch off.)
What I can say is I actually left the Alternator mount bolts just snug so I could adjust the bolts with the tensioner. Maybe If I tighten them that will help. I'll try it out.

 
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Also curious, why is that critical?

 
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Because you'll fry the pcm otherwise......

 
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I watched this video a couple years ago (I think it was this one) , I believe the dude in the video turned the engine the wrong way... clockwise instead of counterclockwise. Commenters really ripped him for that. Did you turn it counterclockwise?

 
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Type 'loose alternator bolts' into the forum search bar and you should find the answer

If I had said to tighten the lugnuts, would you question it? If a wheel falls off while someone is driving the car, the cost could be FAR GREATER than just the price of a wheel and lugnuts.
Same goes for the alternator bolts.

 
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o no...thats exactly what I did. I was turning the pulley clockwise the whole time because thats what he did. Uh oh.......well the car runs....but I imagine re'doing the install by turning the crank the right direction might yield better results?

 
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I am not sure if you would cause damage or not, you likely had the grenade pin still in the tensioner at the time which would be a good thing I reckon. Someone with more knowledge than myself could answer that question if you may have caused some damage.

 
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I took the tensioner pin out once I got the belt on but...I already got my engine mount and the pulley off. I'll try it again except this time I'll go counterclockwise, rotate it 6 times (instead of 2), and see if I can get my marks near perfect. If it still sounds little off, I'll take it apart again for the 3rd time because this is my second theory....

when I was trying to get the belt on the pulley went out of place with the mark about 2 inches to the left of the arrow so what did I do? I turned the pulley clockwise 2inches back into position but maybe!! what I really did was turn the pulley a full rotation clockwise...misaligning the whole thing but I'd find that very strange that the car would still perform great. Just a little wonky noises and differences in rpm shifting up and down. Thoughts?

 
Rep Power: 224

The reason you should only turn counter-clockwise is because that is the way the engine spins when running. The tensioner is only designed to keep tension when spinning this way, if you rotate the crank clockwise the belt could have easily jumped out of time.

Here is how the timing belt should be installed (from the service manual):
-Set crank and cam at TDC.
-Install tensioner (grenade pin in and spring on), torque to 7.2 lb ft.
-Loosen tension bolt 180 degrees.
-Install timing belt starting at the crank, then tensioner, water pump, then cam.
-Install tensioner spring to block.
-Rotate the crank two rotations then ensure timing marks still line up (more rotations is fine, service manual says two).
-Torque tensioner bolt to 33 lb ft.
-Remove grenade pin.

 
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If you arnt getting a misfire code, you're fine.

I'd unplug the battery or pull the ecu/pcm fuse, for 10 min. Plug it back in, start car, let the ecu relearn the idle, dont touch anything until rpm rests at 800rpm idle. Drive it for a week in both cruise and hard accelerating conditions, so the ecu can remap its air/fuel peramitors.

 
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I'm back, I had to take a break because I ended up breaking the bottom alternator slide bolt because I torqued it too tight. After 2 trips to the junkyard I got it all back together. I followed all of these steps except for one thing, I rotated the crank 6 times counterclockwise and all my arrows were nearly perfect. I torqued everything to spec and it still sounds exactly the same. I will be trying mac25's method and seeing if that does anything. If not, I will forget about it and wait and see how lucky I am or how lucky I am not.

 
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Thank all of you for all of your help on this! I really appreciate it and I have learned so much even if things aren't working optimally as I anticipated they would. I will try all of these methods for optimal performance. I will update if any of these methods work for me.

 
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I have not had a single misfire yet. I will definitely try this though. Thank you very much.