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A very strange thing happens.. I put the new belt on, check the marks are dead on TDC, camshaft is ok looking at it without the pulley, then I put the belt tensioner and put the camshaft pulley in and I see the pulley mark is off on the right.
Like in the picture below, maybe even more on the right a little:
Did this two times already.. not sure what is happening. Could I get a big surprise when I'll start the engine?
You need to take the crank pulley off and align the belt using the markings on the gear beneath the crank pulley, as well as the markings you are already looking at for the cams. It's much clearer this way, trust me.
Once you see what I am talking about it will remove all doubt in your mind as to whether or not you've aligned the belt properly.
The mark will look like this:
Is it possible I have messed up the cams and the crank alignment and now when I try to turn the crank by hand it turns about 100 degrees and then the pistons block each other?
I took the belt off and turned the crank one full round to get it to TDC mark.
Then I tried to turn the cams by hand, with the 19 mm, just to get them to align to the marks. But they jumped or something, so I lost count how much they turned. A quarter of turn maybe..
And now when I put the crank back and the belt and I am trying to turn it around to see if it aligns, it turns about 100 degrees and they I think the top of the pistons block each other or something, cause it stops and I am afraid to pull harder so I won't bend something..
This piece of info did it for me: "Once you determine TDC, you want to rotate the crank approx. 50 degrees more. Then leave it there and work on the cams."
BTW, TDC at 50 degrees is crank pulley white mark at the indented dot on the black mask (the one inscribed with the 10,0, etc. It has a white dot, a protuberance, at exactly 50 degrees).
Once I left it at 50, I was able to rotate the cams, nice and slow, back to their marks.
Everything went smooth once I got the next thing in order:
- Crank at 50 degrees after TDC. I cannot stress enough the importance of this. It is NOT ONLY for not hitting the valves (some say that is not even a big issue, you can't have enough force to bend them, but I am not sure) BUT to be able to set the CAMS at 25 degrees each, on the "T" mark AND so they don't jump around easily when you pull and push the timing belt to put it on.
- ORIGINAL Toyota belt. The stupid aftermarked I got from EBay is crap crap crap. Should I have insisted to use it, I'm sure my car would be garbage by now.
- If one happened to move them out of whack with the timing belt OFF, like I did, make sure the crank is at TDC + 50. Use Randall nice suggestion, above, first spark plug off, long screwdriver on the whole, make sure you are at TDC (screwdriver comes down, i.e. your 1st cylinder just passed TDC).
Ah, one more thing, when I disassembled the idler pully assembly, the one with the hydraulic motor on it, I could have not done it without unbolting the AC Compressor first. A big bolt on the side and one behind the OIL filter.
