Timing Belt Problem
 

I just replaced my thermostat and water pump. I'm mechanically inclined enough to get myself in trouble.

I did not use the cam gear holder (the big metal bar). Everything was fine until I went to put the belt back on. One of the cam gears moved and so now it's not where it's supposed to be. I can't get it to move back into position and stay. Also, the crankshaft moved while the belt was off. does that need to be aligned with the cam gears?

What do I do?

get a bentley at bentleypublishers.com
go on line and buy the tools on ebay or where ever

you must use the cam locking bar and a crank shaft pin. I usually get away without the crank pin it's a real pita to get in on my car.

Get a bentley manual for your car at bentleypublishers.com
do not attempt to spin the cams all the way over without the belt on. you just want them back in place to get that bar in there. Once that is done you need to realign the crank shaft, check the manual for that.

I talked to my mechanic friend and he hooked me up with the service manual related to this =)

I put the serpentine pulley (that goes over the crankshaft) and the timing cover on to see where the notches were and then took them off and moved the crank over to line it up. Then I moved the one cam gear back to it's beginning position. I was able to slip the timing belt on and my marks even lined up!

So, now I'm putting it all together. But I have to go get some more bolts because I had one bad one on my a/c pulley and it was missing one.

I also realized this car was missing the timing covers. :l