I've replaced my water pump and I'm now trying to get the timing belt back on. I have 3 issues pressing me:

1)It looks like the upper idler pulley is the only thing which provides the tension to the belt. Is this how its supposed to work? All it seems I can do is push the idler pulley as far over as I can and bolt it tight into place with the hex bolt it has on it.

2)Also, isn't there supposed to be a washer plate behind that upper idler pulley? Mine didn't have one, but I would not be surprised if the last mechanic who worked on it (friend of mine behind his house) lost it.

3) The left camshaft is not lined up properly. Can u adjust the camshaft independently of the crankshaft or the other cam?

 

Its a 4runner 4x4 by the way...

 

there are 2 diffrent designs for the idler, a spring tention version and a hydrolic version

this is what a fully assblemed version looks like.



talk the belt off, then use a rachet to move the cam to the correct positions, move the crank to the correct position and put the belt back on.

Once you have the belt on, rotate the crank a couple of times to make shure everything is still timmed correctly and the belt is tentioned right, then tighen down the bolt on the tentionser

 

I guess mine is hydrolic then because I certainly don't have that spring.

Here's why I believe I'm missing a washer behind that idler pulley -- comes from Chris Gieger's timing belt how-to

idler pulley washer

 

If you have the hydrolic kind you have to pin the tensioner with an allen wrench and put the fan bracket on when you have it bolted in position, pull the allen wrench on the tensioner.

 

My 94 truck has the hydrolic version, but the pic is of my 92 4runner.

I did my 4runner this spring, but i did my truck last year sometime. I dont remember if you need a washer or not, but the idler just flops back and forth. The hydrolic "ram" pushes up against an arm on the base and creates the tenion on the idler/bracket.

(if you follow that)

 

Thx for the info; idler pully should be ok now. But the cams are still off. Here is a rather large picture showing their current state:



The right cam is lined up nicely on its yellow dots. On the left cam, the green dots should be lined up; however, when I ratchet the left cam, it springs over to approximatley where the red circle is.

 

Well I think I got those bitches to line up; just had to be real delicate with the ratcheting.

 

Here is a helpful hint when I do any timing belts. Go to a hardware store and pickup some spring loaded clamps. Use them to hold the belt on the sprockets. What you want to do is make sure you remove all the slack on the water pump side so when you have the belt on all the slack will be on the tensioner. I hope that made sense. You need to make sure the belt is on the crank pulley at all times and work your way counter-clockwise. Sometimes you have to move cam sprocket just a hair to get the belt on.

James