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[Nick W]

If the belt is the same and you have the crank and cams locked correctly, and the belt won't fit then you must have one or more of the tensioners misaligned. That could be because you've turned them to the wrong part of the eccentric - this is probably what made the belt slip when you turned the engine through - or that you're mixing the different backing plates/adjustable/non-adjustable tensioners.


Layout everything you took off, and compare to what you have now.

[Enceladus]

MY '97 onwards the tensioner roller was modified. The later type has a deeper outer flange. If you try and install the belt anti-clockwise on one of these then there probably won't be enough slack to get a new belt onto the tensioner. This is probably made worse if you haven't fully backed off the upper and lower eccentrics and worse again if you are using a fixed (ie non-eccentric) bottom roller.

Hence the GM mounting procedure for the belt changed to clockwise installation. IE. Crankshaft -> Tensioner roller > Cam1 --> Cam2 --> Upper idler --> Cam3 --> Cam4 --> Lower idler - Crankshaft. Since the newer tensioner design was a retrofit I would have thought that there are no cars left with the old design. Your car would have the new type. What make and part number is your kit?

Back-off the upper and lower eccentrics, as per Nick W above, and install the belt clockwise.

[Doctor Gollum]

You naively assume that all the dealers changed the pulleys 

They didn't, hence the halving of the interval on anything with this engine

[Enceladus]

You naively assume that all the dealers changed the pulleys 

They didn't, hence the halving of the interval on anything with this engine

Irrelevant. My comments are related to comparing old and new parts.

What matters now is what kit he is actually trying to install? Unless it's very old stock, it will have a new type tensioner and the belt needs to installed clockwise.

[TheBoy]

On a 6 cylinder engine, 60 degrees off TDC (before or after) is the position when all pistons are halfway down the cylinders, thus "safe".

So Doctor Gollums suggestion is sound. Get the pistons "safe", then get the cams 1 and 2 in the right place (2nd set of hands might be useful, and a 2nd T45 tool), get the lock in place, then repeat for cams 3 and 4.  Then get crank back to where it was to TDC.  Then refit belt.

[biggriffin]

On a 6 cylinder engine, 60 degrees off TDC (before or after) is the position when all pistons are halfway down the cylinders, thus "safe".

So Doctor Gollums suggestion is sound. Get the pistons "safe", then get the cams 1 and 2 in the right place (2nd set of hands might be useful, and a 2nd T45 tool), get the lock in place, then repeat for cams 3 and 4.  Then get crank back to where it was to TDC.  Then refit belt.

  ^^^^^^^

[dave.h]

Well, thanks to everyone's help I managed to get it all sorted out yesterday.

I had one of the idle rollers mis set as was suggested.

After I got everything realigned I fed the belt back on clockwise and made sure it was a good tight fit into the teeth as I went.  Then I removed the passenger side roller, set it at it's lowest position and boom, belt on.

Set the tension, then sorted the timing out after a rotation and managed to get everything exactly aligned on the gauge.

Car now running like a swiss watch thanks to those that commented on this post - thank yo very much to you all.