Long story short- I was adjusting the timing belt tension and now my timing is off! Can I just take off the belt and set everything back?

 

Yeah of course, but you need the grenade pin to hold down the hydraulic tensioner after you compress it. If you look at the tensioner you will see a little hole where the pin goes in.

 

There was no pin in the tensioner. I just adjust it with an allen wrench. I have a 97 A4 2.8. If the camshafts are ok- I just put the bar on to hold them still and roll the crankshaft back then? There is a lot of pressure so if I take out the spark plugs it should go back right? Then hook everything up and crank it by hand a couple times to make sure its ok? I just want to make sure a little mistake doesnt go horribly wrong.
Thank for your help!

 

Ok you have a 2.8L, that would have been nice to know.....
If you have the cam lock bar you could use a gear puller and loosen the cam gears so they free wheel which is what mechanics do. If you can't do that, just make sure the crank is in time before installing the bar, line up the marks on the crank shaft pulley then install the bar, if the bar doesn't slide on easilly you may have jumped a tooth. Keep the marks lined up on the crank and pull the crank pulley off, once the pulley is off mark the crank gear with some white out to make sure the crank doesn't move. Now you can remove the belt, use the cam bar to manually turn one of the cams using the two small holes, line them up as best you can then re-install the bar, now put the belt back on and tension everything back up.

 

I have the cams lined up with the bar on them. When I look at the crank, the TDC mark is about an inch to the right of where it is supposed to be. If I try to turn it back, there is resistance (from compression?) How do I get the crank back to TDC? I have to apologize for my ignorance. I am an ok mechanic unless something goes wrong. Now I am a bit out of my depth....

 

The cam bar is holding it genius, you have to take the cam bar off then line up the crank, after than use the bar to manually turn the cams over until the bar can be lined up to both cams again.

 

Like I said, out of my depth. Thanks for your help. Just dint want my attempt at saving $700 to turn into a $7000 catastrophe.

 

I took off the bar and when I turn the crank counterclockwise about an inch back to the TDC mark it moves kind of mushy and when I release it it pops back to and inch to the right of TDC.

 

Take out a few spark plugs and try it again, it shouldn't do that at TDC.

 

You'll love this-
tell all your buddies about the stupid noob you helped out the other day-
It would seem that the crank turns a lot easier if the car is out of gear! d'oh !!
Talk about tunnel vision- couldn't see the crankshaft pulley for the timing belt.

Thanks for your help