Timing belt alignment

[hattymender]

Just done the timing belt on a 1.8 for a friend. The pulley marks were very slightly out before we took the old one off and are off exact alignment with the new one (less than 1 tooth so can't be taken out by moving belt). Past experience on other engines was to crack the pulley bolts and re-align the camshafts. Not mention of this in Haynes manual. Is near enough good enough?

Rich

[Badger_1]

Just done the timing belt on a 1.8 for a friend. The pulley marks were very slightly out before we took the old one off and are off exact alignment with the new one (less than 1 tooth so can't be taken out by moving belt). Past experience on other engines was to crack the pulley bolts and re-align the camshafts. Not mention of this in Haynes manual. Is near enough good enough?

Rich

I had this on my rover 1.4 engine and it appeared impossible to align them spot on. My cars still fine today wiyh no tappet noise so must be right.

[hattymender]

I had this on my rover 1.4 engine and it appeared impossible to align them spot on. My cars still fine today wiyh no tappet noise so must be right.

Cheers Badger. Apparently it runs ok, friend phoned last night to report all's well but it just doesn't seem right to leave them out without setting the cams.

[Les Henson]

You can't move the sprockets in relation to the camshafts - there's a locating roll pin to prevent this. It's likely that the crank timing mark is the problem, but again you can't alter that either. From what you describe - then it'll be fine.

Les.