jzger

The picture that my crappy manual gives me of the timing marks for the rear balance shaft on my four cylinder 1997 Accord does not give me any indication where the marks actually are. There is a round hole on the face next to the gear teeth. There is also a v-notch on the edge. Which lines up with what? The Haynes manual is a bad joke. Even if I knew which mark (the hole or the notch) I have no idea what to line it up with. Anyone have any ideas?

MrHankey

Mine is a 90 Accord, but I just read the timing belt instructions for yours and this part seems to be the same. I just finished replacing the timing belt, balance shafts belt, and water pump. I, too, had a little difficulty figuring out the rear shaft alignment. Like what you said, I noticed a recessed dot in one place, and a v notch on the outer edge, but no clear places to line these up with. For mine, to align the rear shaft, you have to find an access hole behind the rear balance shaft (you have to remove a bolt to use it). You align the shaft by putting a bolt or screwdriver or something in it (they recommend using a 6mm x 100 mm bolt, inserted a minimum of 74mm). Supposedly, the bolt/screwdriver/whatever will only fit when shaft is in the correct alignment. My Haynes for 90-93 Accords went through this, I'm surprised that 94-97 didn't.

It still didn't work out exactly as it should have for me. I kept slowly turning the rear shaft sprocket, and found that I could fit the bolt in in more than one place, which didn't seem right. I ended up noticing that there were (really faded) two red paint spots where someone had marked the sprocket position to the area just next to it, which also happened to be one of the spots the bolt fit - so that's what I used. But without the red marks, I don't know how I would have been able to determine which of the several positions that the bolt would fit in the access hole to use. I just finished this yesterday, and the car runs fine (no excess vibrations, which I assume would be the case if the rear balance shaft was out of alignment with the engine).

So, I would recommend reading the timing belt instructions, which are located in the FAQ sticky post in the Accord and TSX forum. If you encounter the same thing as me, that the bolt fits in several positions instead of just one, look carefully for any paint or other marks made. Hope that helps.

MrHankey

Just realized you first posted almost 2 months ago, so you've probably already dealt with it, but for my own curiosity, did you have the same problem with rear shaft as me?

RedThunder

The rear balance shaft has a mark on the gear face that lines up with a line on the oil pump body, about 5 o'clock. Also, remove the maintenance bolt at the rear of the motor, install a 6 x 100 mm bolt, to lock the shaft into position to make balance belt installation much easier.

honda guy

There is an acces plug in the rear of the engine block. Pull the plug and insert a thin long bolt or even a skinny screw driver. rotate the baleancer gear untill the screw driver is in the hole at its deepest point.