I just did a head gasket and putting it back together and I'm having trouble with the timing belt. I took the cam gears off and laid them on the ac line with zip ties. Now their is too much tension. Do you need to remove the serpentine belt and take the cover off? I'm guessing yes but do you need a special tool to take tension off or is there a way without a special tool?

 

This is the correct tensioner tool: http://www.streettunedmotorsports.co...ner_wrench.htm
You definitely don't want that belt too tight

 

oh boy, you didnt put the tensioner tool in.. Now you have to do it the long way and make sure everything lines up. :P

 

if u didn't use the tool, then your tensioner if fully extended. you have to take the timing covers of and line up the timing marks and using a vise compress the tensioner, use a mini allen wrench and place it in a key way hole for the tensioner or. if u have the tool leave the tensioner in their and use the tool to compress the it.

 

If you don't have the tool, your going to have to take it apart and set up the tensioner in a vise. It's really not that hard to do, it just takes a little bit of time.

 

Thank you. So you put it in a vice to compress it? How do you keep it compressed you put something in the keyhole than pull it out when the belt is back on in place? So you need to remove serp belt do you need to remove all the pullies to?

 

Yes, you have to remove the serp belt tensioner,water pump pulley, idler pulley and 4 bolts for the crank pulley just to get the lower cover off.

You will then see your tensioner and pulley you need to adjust.

Did you not use the long bolt(tool) to hold tension down on the tensioner arm??

 

No I didn't.