I have my car apart doing a timing belt/balance belt replacment job. I have replaced the water pump and put in the new tensioner pully. when starting i aligned as close as i could the 2 cam gear marks to the top valve cover marks, they seems off a little but as close as they would go. The crank pully mark was just about on too with its mark. I used a cam holder tool and slid it between gears to hold them. after doing all the stuff I go back top to put on new belt and see that the tool is very tight and the cam gears seem even more off. so i force the holder tool out and I'm stuck as to what to do to get the cam gears to line back up properly without the belt being on?
reading suggests there should be 18 teeth between cam marks. if i stick it on as it with little slack it about 15 teeth, so it seems off.
Is it possible to manually rotate the cams to line up?

this video is not a 4g63, but it describes the issue im' having

 

Yeah, lots of valve spring pressure wants to turn the cam sprockets - normal. One hack is to use box end wrenches or something similar on the sprocket bolt heads, turn the sprockets until the marks line up and then tie the wrenches in place with some cord. Stupid but it works. This should only be a few degrees. More than that and you are bending valves. After the belt is on the upper sprockets put clamps or zip ties on the belt so it can't jump. Where the belt likes to jump is at the crank sprocket. Put a mark on the belt and onto the sprocket and then while adjusting tension, if you hear a thump, look there to find the marks no longer aligned. This is one of those big jobs the first time but easy the second.

 

thanks for tips. i had checked out the video, after searching more i just used a wrench to turn them into place. I think in the end it may be off a little, because the low idle seems a little more "lobby" now. but it didn't blow up when i started it, and it drives. and my annoying squeak from my old water pump is gone so far, so thats good.

Also for future people searching. I had to look for awhile to find info about the timing idler pulley. basically its 1/2 behind the powerstearing pump, It would require some very difficult to get off bolts, I believe a total of 6, to change that pulley, although I had a new one, i choose to save the headache and leave it, as it appeared to be in good condition and working order.

 

Your eye can't see the picture in the manual, the fender is in the way. Use a mirror at 45 degrees to look at the cam sprocket timing marks.

As for the power steering pump, easy to take off, it is just more bolts. When reassembling I had my wife, with her smaller hands, start the bolts.

There's a wire on the power steering pump that tells the computer to up the idle. This gets knocked off my people installing turbochargers. Then they wonder why the car dies while parallel parking. If you ever do this job protect that wire.

 

So compared to say an sti ej257 which is harder to do the timing belt on evo or sti ?

 

About the same.