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I’m a noob doing my very first timing belt change on my 2007 Honda Ridgeline. (Eric’s videos are what gave me the confidence I could do this myself.)
I’ve already replaced the water pump, the idler pulley, the tensioner pulley and the hydraulic tensioner back on. I am ready to put the timing belt back on and I think I have screwed something up.
Specifically, I think the back side of the engine is out of sync with the crank and the front side. I’m not sure how this could have happened, as I have been very careful to follow directions step-by-step, but the timing marks on the back side cam pulley (closest to the firewall) are at about 2:00 whereas the timing mark (cylinder 1) on the front side cam pulley and the crank pulley are both at 12:00.
I don’t know if it happened or how it happened, but based on Eric’s video, it seems to me that it should not be that way.
I have 2 questions:
1. Can someone review the attached photos and confirm whether or not the front and rear cams are in fact out of sync?
2. If I am, can I rotate the rear cam separately to get it back in sync with the front cam and the crank?I have attached two photos, the first of the front cam pulley, the second of the rear. The photo of the rear cam pulley shows what is – I believe – the timing mark pointing at 2:00.
I cannot figure out HOW I got it out of sync, if in fact I did. But it seems to me that if I DID get it moved out of sync, I should be able to get it back.
I’m stuck and think it would wise to NOT proceed without answers to the these questions. Thanks.
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Yea, you’re off. Good find before you put it back together. It’s actually common for the rear cam to go out of time like that. It’s because of valve spring pressure on the cam lobes. I wish I would have covered that better in the video. That said it’s an easy fix. Just use a 17mm wrench, not a socket, to place the marks where they should be and install the belt and you should be fine. Once you have it in the correct position it should stay there long enough to install the belt. If not, repeat the above procedure.
Good luck.
Ugh. I may a victim of “being too careful” but I am stuck again.
Since I don’t know how much precision is required on this belt, I keep trying to get it perfect: putting the belt on, adjusting, taking the belt off, adjusting again.
I am attempting to get both cams and the crank all pointed straight up to TDC. I have the crank and the front cam there, but now my rear cam is “stuck” with the TDC line pointing straight down. I can’t seem to rotate it past that. I mean, it feels really stuck. (Yes, I have the belt off.) What’s the trick here?
New information.
I managed to manually rotate the rear cam to TDC and got the timing belt on. I confirmed both cams and crank were at TDC when I put the belt on. I also replaced the water pump, tensioner and idler. I added a gallon or coolant and a gallon of water, and started the engine to confirm that I had things put back together right.
I don’t. Or else I damaged something doing the manual rotation.
I have a “clicking” or “knocking” sound that wasn’t there before. My engine ran like a top and purred like a kitten, but it was at 109,000 miles and due for a timing belt change. Now it has this knocking / clicking sound and I cannot help but think that all my manual rotation of the cams in an attempt to be perfect has damaged something, but I am too much of a noobie to know how to proceed.
it sounds to me like you rotated the rear camshaft the wrong direction and ended up bending valve(s). Hopefully this isn’t the case, but get your hands on a compression tester (they rent these at places like autozone) and check the compression in all of your cylinders. Compression should be around 90-110 psi with all of the readings pretty close to each other.
If you do end up having some bent valves, then you’ll have to weigh some options. You can get a new/used engine or you can get the head rebuilt. Hopefully there’s no damage to the valve seats and you can just get some new valves ground and cut to length and just drop them in.
Good luck either way. Hopefully there’s no actual damage to the engine and it ends up being something simple.
Thanks for the insight.
Since I likely did this by rotating the engine manually, I’m guessing the damage is minimal. I see valves for my truck available on Rock Auto. When you say “get some valves ground and cut to length”, what do you mean? Do the valves I would buy from Rock Auto still need work?
Same topic – Different Car / Issue (2006 Accord V6)
Unfortunately I have run into a snag with my timing belt replacement. I am encountering resistance when manually turning the crank after replacing the water pump, idler, tensioner pulley, tensioner, and timing belt. I verified that the cam and crank alignment marks were correct before and after the replacement. I marked the old belt, transferred the marks to the new belt, verified the cam and crank were still aligned, installed the new belt, and then verified alignment before and after pulling the tensioner pin. I then manually turned the crank clockwise expecting to go six rotations to re-verify the alignment but soon encountered resistance. I pulled all six plugs to rule out compression. I do not believe this to be cam spring tension resistance as it feels to solid.
Do you have any thoughts, advice, or recommendations? I’m thinking I should pull the belt and reset the timing but not sure of a safe procedure to follow to accomplish this. The picture is post belt replacement.
Many thanks in advance…
If the engine won’t move when you attempt to rotate the crank shaft you are likely out of time and the pistons are making contact with the valves. I’d recommend you remove the belt and put everything back in time the way it should be. Don’t worry about marking the belt as that won’t do much good as the belt will not come up to the same location on every rotation of the engine. Just be sure to use the marks on the engine to line everything up. I believe the video covers this in detail. You might want to review that section again.
Good luck and keep us posted.
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