Timing belt lines wont line up. Whats going on

[POSz32]

Doing a timing belt on my 90 300zx. I got all the cam and crank pulleys were they are supposed to be. But only the left two cams are the ones lining up with the lines on the belt. The right sides are a tooth off from lining up I've been out here for two hours trying to figure out why they won't line up. Does anyone have any thoughts on this ?

[Ace2cool]

You need to take a breaker bar and use it and a socket to rotate the cams manually. Also, you don't line the belt up with the backing plate. The backing plates are just reference points to help set TDC.

[nissanfreak12]

To properly line the belt up, you really need to count the cogs on the belt between the pulleys. The have the numbers in the FSM, follow it to a T, otherwise your car will not run right, or worse you could damage the engine.

[POSz32]

Ok I've been trying to get cams aligned with backing plate. An the timing belt lines lined up with cams and backing plate wasnt working lol. So dont worry about backing plate dots at all?

[POSz32]

@nissan freak i have no idea what your talking about lol cogs? Fsm?

[Ace2cool]

No, don't worry about the backing plates. If the lines on the belt match up with the cam gears, you'll be fine. But yes, count the teeth of the timing belt in between the timing marks just to make sure you have them all 100% correct. The specs for that are in the FSM under EM, I believe.

My backing plates on the passenger side are almost 2 full timing marks off. They're just there to help you find TDC.

[POSz32]

Cool man thanks alot. Imma get to it later on we are putting a motor in my brothers chevelle today. Ill let yall know how i make out.

[POSz32]

Hey man im out here now and car get the timing bet over the tensioner its like right there but cant get it to go over. I got the 10mm bolt in there and i tried loosening the 3 tensioner bolts and i cat get it to go

[POSz32]

Nvm got it

[Ace2cool]

Lol. I thought the same thing. Those instructions aren't exactly the best. They should have had a short turn to the right at the end to help the tensioner extend.