i've removed and re-installed my timing belt probably close to 8 times since the weekend for various reasons (wrong o-rings on oil pump and camshaft support).

 

I've noticed that the belt seems to have a stretched a bit.. and in fact it's not very tight at all between the crank sprocket and the passenger side camshaft... is that normal? there's no tensioner on that side, so the tension is purely between the belt and it's teeth.

How old is the belt? ou may want to spend the money and get a new one. As to the slack. Once you have the belt on, push down on it near the tensioner. Take out the slack in the belt there and then make sure the cams all line up. If not, then you will need to realign them and then hand tension the belt again to check for proper position of the cams.

 

Hope this helps.

A few possibilities:

 

You bought the world's cheapest/crappiest belt (nothing should have stretched with all the more it's been used).

 

Something isn't right. Like moving the tensioner to the left then tightening the 2 bolts.

 

Or - sometimes there is some slack until you pull the pin and turn the engine over by hand (I do 2 full revolutions - but I'm paranoid) and recheck things.

C'mon give me some credit here, it's a brand new OEM belt!

 

but the tensioner only applies tension on the drivers side between the crankshaft sprocket and cam, no?

 

Hmm.. or wait maybe it does tighten up after some revolutions... now that i think about it.

 

I gotta stop overthinking everything..