Ok so I finally got a day off...

 

this is on my 1998 legacy wagon I am doing HGs on

 

I installed the timing belt and aligned the crank mark and then aligned the cam marks, 

 

installed the belt, double checked everything, pulled the tensioner grenade pin and rotated the engine several times by hand

 

while the marks on the engine and sprockets all line up the marks on the belt no lone line up, they are all about 1 tooth clockwise when the marks on the engine and sprockets line up, even the crank mark is off an equal ammount

 

But like I said the cams and crank are still correct

 

SO is this wrong or right? 

either way it's lunch time

 

hope to be done tonight

 

also I will take some pics before I take lunch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ok pics are up and working I am gonna get some lunch, hopefully I get done today, I need my car back, lol

They were lined up when you installed the belt and have now moved?  If so that's normal.  As long as all the sprockets still line up when you put the crank mark notch in position with the oil pump's mark you are fine.  

I use Dayco belts and the drivers side always looks like that with them.  The bottom of the intake and top of the exhaust never totally line up.

 

I've had Subaru tech's tell me that with OEM belts it's fine - which I can't understand.

I think I figured this out guys... the cam and crank sprockets have a different amount of teeth so....

Pretty much any 4 strole engine  Cam gear(s) are double the size of the crank.  Kinda the nature of the beast.

 

What you are missing for the lines not lining up after rotation is that the # of teeth on the belt isn't excactly divisible by the # of teeth on the Largest gears (cam gears)

 

If the Total belt tooth # were evenly divisible by the Cam gear tooth # then they would line up 1 out of X rotations, with x being the result of Total Teeth divided by Cam teeth.

 

As it is, they won't line up again til 127 rotations or something close to that.

Don't bother with marks on the belt, they wont line up again as Gloyale explained. As long as the marks on the sprockets are lined up its good to go.

Drivers side sprockets may be a hair off due to the length of the belt. But the belt will stretch after a short period of use (break-in). If you check that again in a month the sprockets will be lined up.

latly have been clamping the belt to pullys to make shure no slipage gentaly with small vice grips. As prev noted if you turn it marks will not line up agian but will still be in time is nesacary to turn it tho to addjust valves make shure you check valve clearances before you run it