GTMorgan

I just drove it around the block. The problem I was having was 1st not knowing where the marks were. Thanks a ton for the photo and the explanation. I would have never even seen those marks had you not pointed them out. I had a hard time getting the tensioner closed. Had to pull some tricky stuff to get it closed and it took me forever to get the drill bit that I had put in the holes out. I just drove it around the block and everything seems fine. It seems like it runs a tiny bit rougher then it used to, but it also that I might be paying a lot more attention. Again, thanks to all. I never would have been able to fix the car without the help of everyone on this message board, and having a car again is going to increase the quality of my life exponentially. Cheers, Morgan

Cheers fellas. I'm going to give it a shot in the next couple of days, tomorrow or Monday. I'll let you know how it works. Thanks, GTMorgan

I do have the Hayes manual, but it's far less accurate than any of the information that I have found here. It doesn't even seem to mention the alignment marks.

Check. I reread the article twice and here are my questions: I finally found the hash marks on the camshaft sprockets! They were tiny and unobtrusive so I had to look very very closely. That deserves a dancing banana. So these go to the top position. Sweet. Does the crack sprocket have to go to the top position too? Do I use the notch to position that? I think I might be able to get this... Cheers, Morgan

I have a question about the timing belt on a 95 legacy 2.2. I just changed my water pump, and while changing the actual pump was easy, putting the timing belt back on was a difficult operation. I finally did it with some help, and I started the car without the drivebelts on to see how it did. It ran pretty terribly. At idle it seemed to be ok, (a little ragged) but when I stepped on the gas it was clear that the timing was off. My assumption is it's because I didn't put the belt on correctly. So today I took a stab at putting the belt back on. I took it off, then aligned the crank and the cams according to the marks on the pulleys. I then counted 44 teeth to the left and 40.5 teeth to the right and tried to line them up with the arrows on the pulley. It seemed to work so I put the the lower idler sprocket and pulley back on and now it won't start. It will turn over, but it never catches. It seems that I have put the timing off even more then it was! Harsh... I then noticed that when I align the crank and the cam pulleys with the belt on, they are not all pointing up. The right one is a few degrees off. If this is the case then I have no idea how to put the belt on with the correct number of teeth between the pulleys and keep the alignment marks where they should be. (A few times in the process I had to move the pulleys around a bit to get the belt on, and they seemed to jump to where they wanted to be... Sometimes they jumped as much as 10 or 15 degrees in either direction...) So my question is: What am I doing wrong? How can I make sure the pulleys are supposed to be where they are supposed to be and get the belt on? Might I have damaged the engine by cranking it with the timing belt installed wrong? What would you do if you were in my situation. Thanks... GTMorgan

Here is a more exhaustive explanation of what I had going on: First, I am using the Hayes manual for the car. Unfortunitly the manual is for all 90 - 99 Legacys so I there is some confusion. This leads to the book being not entirely accurate. So the book told me to put cylinder 1 at TDC. In order to do this, I took out the spark plugs, put the compression gauge in cylinder 1, moved the crankshaft until the timing marks were aligned and there was pressure on the gauge. Then I took the drive belts off, etc, and hence to my question. So in response to the question, my clutch has never slipped, and I'm really not sure how come the crankshaft was moving (have something to do with the spark plugs not being in?). I have taken out the water pump and put the new one in. Which leads me to my next issue. Putting the timing belt back on... I'm going to try a few more things, but I'm having some issues. Thanks, GTMorgan

Did that and it worked like a charm. Thanks for the help. GTMorgan

I am changing the water pump in my Legacy and I've hit a weird point in the removal of the timing belt. I can't get the crankshaft pulley bolt off. Here is what I have done: I have a chain wrench holding the pulley. I have the 22mm socket on the bolt and a 4 foot cheater bar on the ratchet. The problem is that when I pull on the bar, the pulley stays where it is, but the bolt and the inside of the pulley just spin. It seems as if there is an outside and an inside to the pulley and even though the outside seems to be holding still, the inside keeps moving as I try to get the bolt loose. This happens when the car is in gear also (I've tried it in 1st and 5th). I haven't been able to find any information about this specific problem on the boards (although I have learned a lot) or in my Hayes manual (the Hayes makes it seem like the crankshaft pulley is one piece and that I'm going insane ). I have a 95 Legacy Brighton AWD 2.2 Manual. Thanks, GTMorgan