Timing Belt Installation Woes

[Darius]

I'm finally putting the engine together again and installed the timing belt last night. For some reason, the belt begins to walk towards the block after a couple of crankshaft rotations. I have HKS cams, an N1 oil pump, and a Z31 tensioner with stock RB25 spring. Can anyone give me some insight as to why this may be happening? Am I tensioning it too tight or too loose maybe? The FSM says "the timing belt must be tightened the right amount" OH, NO $HIT?!

I followed the procedure to rotate the belt twice and then tighten the nut, but every time I rotate the belt and let off pressure, the belt goes a little slack. Do I tension it to the tighter position as the belt rotates or the looser position as I let off the wrench to turn the crank?

[Shocker]

leave the tensionor loose like the service manual says, make the turns in the proper direction, the tensionor automatically tightens, then you just lock down the nut that holds it in place, before you rotate it tho, make sure the belt it is on relitively straight between the cam gears.

[Darius]

Yeah that makes sense, but there is a little bit of variation in tension between when I am turning the crank and when I'm not. I'll try it again over lunch today and let you know, but it didn't do this before.

[Shocker]

another thought, make sure you DIDNT skip any teeth, this will cause it to not tension properly, and even make contact with your valves.. o.O. take your time, its frustraiting but this is a very serious bit of re assembly.

[Carl H]

here is how i tension t-belts...take it as you will.install the belt according to the fsm with the timing marks and what not.insert an allen key into the tensioner and turn it counter clockwise so it pulls the belt nice and taunt.release the tensioner and pull it clockwise a bit and release to allow the spring to do its thing, done my car 3x this time and works a treat every time.

[Darius]

OMG you guys are going to laugh at me. I looked at it closer over lunch today and the pulley seemed c***-eyed. Turns out one of the spring coils was behind the pulley causing it to sit a little sideways on the bolt. Thus, the belt wanted to rotate sideways. Anyways, I repositioned the spring, tensioned it like I had been doing and it worked perfectly. der.

I will post some bling pics either later today or tomorrow so everyone can ooh and ahh.