radair1

i got a little ahead of myself while changing my timing belt. i actually pulled the belt off with out aligning marks on crank and cams.so my question is can i just align the marks now?and continue on?

rworegon

Yes! Align both cam and the crank the their marks and you are good to go.

The link in the first post here is an excellent tutorial.

DeathCougar

iTrader: (23)

5VZFE is a Non-interference motor, so you can spin the crank and cams separate of each other for days. Just line up the match marks, and you are golden. Probably one of the easiest Toyota motors to do a timing belt on

fastfox86

Glad I found this thread. I'm replacing the timing belt and water pump on my brother's 5VZFE, and when I line up the crank mark where it should be, the cam gears don't line up on their marks. No, they are NOT off by 180 degrees. They are about a 1/4 inch to the right of the marks on the cam gear backing plate. It looks to me like the belt slipped a tooth and the marks are off now. This isn't surprising since the water pump has had a pretty bad leak and probably got the belt wet. Might also explain why I've been hearing a small valve train tick the past couple months. I guess the only question I have is once I take the belt off, should I rotate the cam back a bit to line them up or do a full clockwise turn? Or does it matter much. Any help would be appreciated.

SacRunner

The timing marks on the old belt will (just about) never line up with the timing marks on the cam and crank pulleys; this is expected.

Line up the timing marks on the cam pulleys with the paint dot on the rear timing belt cover, or line up the timing mark on the crank pulley with the mark on the oil pump; don't look at the marks on the belt, they're only there for proper alignment at install. If all 3 pulleys don't line up, rotate the crank a full rotation and check again.

When you install the new belt, make sure all timing marks line up and that the marks on the belt match the marks on the pulleys (assuming an OEM Toyota belt). With all the idler pulleys installed and the tensioner released, rotate the crank 2 times and verify that the timing marks on the pulleys match up with the reference points; the marks on the belt will be off a tooth or 2 (again, this is expected).

fastfox86

Hey SacRunner. Thanks for your reply. I wasn't referring to the marks on the belt old or new. The old belt is still on and the marks on it have long since faded. The issue I see is that the crank is in the proper position with the dimple at the rear of crank sprocket lined up perfectly with the mark on the oil pump, but the cam gear notches/marks don't line up with the backing plate notches. The reason they are not lining up is not because I need to turn the crank once more. They are not 180 degrees off. They are only about 1/4 of an inch off the mark with the crank in proper position. This leads me to believe the belt may have jumped a tooth or two at some point. My only question is, will it hurt anything to rotate the cam gear counterclockwise a quarter of an inch to line them up with the new belt when it goes on, or should I just do a full clockwise rotation of each cam gear to get them lined back up properly?

fastfox86

Here's a pic of what I'm talking about. The vertical line on the cam gear is the factory notch. The black line I made on the outer ring is where the cam gear notch should be. This picture is with the crank timing marks in perfect alignment.

SacRunner

Yeah, that probably isn't good, chances are the belt was installed incorrectly (off by a tooth somewhere).

At this point, I would remove the belt then turn each pulley individually to get all the timing marks lined back up then install the new belt. If I remember correctly, the passenger cam will want to "spring forward" when the timing marks are lined up and can be a bit of a pain to work with.

As for clockwise vs. counter-clockwise, the FSM says to only turn the motor over in a clockwise direction, which I'm sure they state for a reason, but I have rotated my cam gears counter clockwise (in a very small amount, maybe 1/16 of a rotation?) and haven't seen any problems.

fastfox86

Yeah that's the factory belt on there too, so it either jumped from being wet with coolant or they installed it wrong at the factory. It's off by a quarter to half an inch so I'll probably just give it one full clockwise rotation and get them lined back up. Thanks for your input Sac.

rworegon

5VZFE in a non-interference engine. While you can go a full turn clockwise, going counter-clockwise will not hurt anything. It can easily jump forward that much when installing the new belt and I (and most likely others) rotate it back counter-clockwise to align.

See the link in post #2.

fastfox86

Thanks for the info.

fastfox86

Ok, I'm confused as hell now. I finally got the remains of a year long water pump leak cleaned up and the new pump and stuff on, but the only way the belt will go on and align properly on the cam gear timing notches is just like it was when it came off, which is off exactly 1 tooth. I verified the old belt and new belt have the same amount of notches between the LCAM and RCAM markings and that the crank mark on the new belt is lined up right. It will align fine on the RCAM side but the LACAM will not come up far enough unless both gears are rotated forward a tooth like in my pic above. Should I just rotate them forward like they were when the belt came off or what?

SacRunner

It will all line up, its a bit of a pain but it shouldn't be off a tooth.

Remove the idler pulley between the 2 cam gears and that should give you the little bit of wiggle room needed to get all the timing marks lined up. Once the belt is on and everything lined up you can reinstall the idler pulley.

fastfox86

Thanks. I ended up having to move the gears forward just enough to get all the marks on the belt to line up with all the crank and cam gear marks and once the belt is fully on there's enough slop in it before adding tension to allow the gears to line up with the backing plate marks and still be on track with the belt. I think we're good. Thanks again.

rworegon

Also, remember that right and left are as if you are sitting in the driver seat.

right = passenger side
left = driver side

After the belt is on, turn the crank two full revolutions clockwise to be sure the timing marks all line back up. The painted mark on the belt will not line back up for many revolutions...this is normal.

fastfox86

Thanks rw. Yeah I read enough DIY's before I started with people having the L and R reversed. I've got it on the correct way and just pulled the pin. I'll spin it a few times after lunch and make sure it all lined up right.

fastfox86

Ok I finally got back out to the garage earlier and turned the crank a couple times and its lining up nicely. Things are going back together nicely. I didn't realize Aisin changed the water pumps for use without FIPG and the gasket it came with looked a little flimsy, so I wound up just using FIPG like the original. There was no groove in the back of the new one so hopefully the FIPG holds fine.

rworegon

Hang on to the gasket in case the thin layer of FIPG fails. The new gasket works as designed with no problems that I've seen or heard of.

fastfox86

Sweet

fastfox86

Well I finally had time to get it all completely put back together Sunday afternoon and it runs perfectly. I changed out the crank seal and everything behind the timing covers. some of it could have gone for another 100k probably but I figured, what the heck. I had it all torn down so why not change it all out. Now I've gotta tackle the valve covers in a few weeks. I wound up buying the crank holding tool for the job so if anyone needs a loaner, let me know. It's just going to collect dust for another 100k. Here are some random pics I took during the job just for kicks.