I've fitted kits were the marks on the belt don't match sweet fa, all the marks are for is the initial set up, which can be done with the marks on the pulleys and cut outs on the back plate, and a bit off correction fluid to highlight them. The adjustable bottom pulley just makes the fitting of a new belt easier..
My
Ten penath worth.
that's been my experience too. I try the marks on the belt, and if they don't match carry on without them. They never line up once you've turned the engine through anyway.
The cutouts on the back plate are too far away from those on the pulleys to do the detail adjustment.
If you don't have the cam locks then you have to find some way of holding all four in the correct position while you route the belt and do the intial tensioning. You don't have enough hands!
It's dead easy to turn the crank with the belt as you fit it, so that's also needed.
That only leaves the alignment tool, and you're never going to know that all five pulleys are correct without it.
So it's
possible to change the belt without the tools, but you'll have to improvise some form of locks(although the cam wedges don't cost much on their own) and you still won't get it right. Mine was a tooth out on all four cams when I bought it, and I thought it was smooth and powerfull. Fitting the new belt correctly improved both and increased the average fuel economy by 3MPG. Work out the cost of that over the belt's 40,000 mile life, and getting it right is a financial necessity as well as a mechanical one.