Couple of weekends ago, I started about replacing the timing belt on my 99 Accord, got sick after a day's worth of work, and was lucky that I could undo my work and put things back together next day.

I got to the point where I was able to remove the upper and lower covers, and got the timing and balancer belt exposed. Before I get started on my next attempt, I hope you can clarify a couple of things to me:-

1) On the crankshaft pulley, there is a notch which, when lined up against a pointer is supposed be bring up piston 1 to TDC
Now, there is another way to bring up TDC, and that is with the camshaft pulley notches lined up against the engine head.
Unfortunately, for my 99Accord, the above two don't match up. With crankshaft pulley lined up, the camshaft was off by half teeth. And with camshaft pulley lined up, the crankshaft pulley notch was off by about an inch.
The reason I am concerned here, is because after replacing with the new belt, I am supposed to bring it back to previous state. Should I be trying to line up the way it is, or should I try to line up both the pulleys simultaneously.

2) I did replace the drive belts (ie alternator and p/s). But how do you set the tension right? Do you know by experience or use special tension measuring tools. Or if you are measuring deflection, how do you know you are pulling the belt at the right force?
I am concerned here because I found it difficult to tighten the p/s belt (alternator belt was easy, you just tighten and loosen a bolt). I was trying to lift up the p/s assembly while tightening the bolt. (It probably would be easier to have an extra hand here). I don't think I did it right, cause its making chirping noise sometimes when I am make a turn and some other times the steering wheel starts shuddering.

 

The timing marks should all line up together.
I don't get why you can line up the crank and the cam is only 1/2-tooth away.
But when you line up the cam, the crank is way off??? How can that be?

The crankshaft has 3 completely different sets of marks.
1) there's a mark on the timing sprocket, that should line up with a mark on the aluminum oilpump.
2) there a SINGLE notch in the external crank pulley, that should line up with a pointer on the plastic lower timing cover.
3) there's a set of 3 notches on the crank pulley, an inch away. Those are NOT at TDC but they're at 15-degrees for spark timing.

Which set of marks are you using?

 

Hi JB!! That puzzed me too. Maybe because cam rotates twice as much as the crank? The c/s notch would move about an inch (I'm estimating from memory) for half a teeth worth of rotation of cam.

Now, about the notch, I inserted the picture of the crankpulley in the thumbnail below. I am talking about the pointer B on the lower timing cover, which should align with the notch A. There is another notch, to the left of A. In my case the pointer is pointing to the right of A (by just about the same distance), when the timing belt pulley is aligned as in the next picture. I was expecting A and B to match up.

I looked up in the manual for the mark 1) you talked about. I missed that one last time, I'll look for it this time. But

As for the three notches you talk about in 2), I really did not see them. The pulley is rusty, but I closely looked for it. May be in this model, there is this one notch next to A as opposed to the three?

But what should I do while re-assemling: Try to reproduce my current setting or go for the ideal alignment situation?

 

When you take the lower cover off and the crank pulley is sitting on the bench...you might notice that there are OTHER timing marks on the actual crank pulley and the counter balance belt pulley.
It's all in the manual.
And remember to clean the feathers of the Yamada Bird or evil will befall you.

 

Faosh, in your 1st picture, A points to the TDC mark. But below that, you can see another mark on the edge of the pulley. Normally that "mark" is a set of three real close to each other. Center is bigger, & the little ones are the +/- tolerance for spark timing. I guess that's not always the case for every year??

If you remove the crank pulley & the lower timing cover, look for a dimple on the outer face of the crank timing sprocket. Then there's a little triangle/arrow in the aluminum oilpump case. Best to view through the fender opening, so you're viewing straight onto the end of the crankshaft.

The only reason I mention these marks, is the slim chance that the external crankshaft pulley has slipped. There's a rubber layer compressed between the hub & the pulleys. Rarely, that can come apart, so the external timing marks move to the wrong position.

For the CAMshaft sprocket timing, I've never seen one where the arrow is pointing perfectly up. That's only approximate, so the REAL marks are the 2 little dimples out at the edge (which are shown in your 2nd picture).

I would shoot for correct cam timing. Don't duplicate it if it's wrong. The best you can do is to the closest tooth in the cam sprocket. Without an adjustable sprocket, you can't move a fraction of a tooth & there's no real big reason to try.