'97 Accord EX 5-spd Sedan

I left this 10mm "service bolt" in the timing belt tensioner assembly! (The white bolt just to the left of the center of the page.)
http://www.cybertrails.com/~puf/Hond...erviceBolt.jpg[/img]
The guy on that page quotes:Apparently, the hole should've been left empty like this:


So I guess my question is:
I should be able to get this taken care of either tonight or tomorrow. But the car might also be a tad bit off line. I lined up the crank shaft, front balance shaft, rear balance shaft on the balancer belt. But I have a feeling that I didn't line the cam shaft sprocket up with the crankshaft sprocket correctly. The camshaft could be off just a tooth. We knew the "Up" had to be slightly between 12:00 and 1:00, but we didn't use the timing belt cover as a guide the way the article tells you to.

Just in case you all haven't looked at this article yet:
http://www.cybertrails.com/~puf/Hond...meBalNote.html

 

Improperly tensioned belt:
1. Too loose can cause the cam gear to slip on the belt, throwing off the cam timing.
2. Too tight can cause the belt to break.

 

should I have felt 4 points of resistance when manually turning the crankshaft to check the tension of the timing belt? my buddy said that was the valves going up, down, up, down through one 360 degree turn of the crankshaft.

but I just read something in the haynes manual that said if you feel resistance when turning the crankshaft by hand, you may be hitting a valve?

but i know the crankshaft and cam shaft were lined up correctly! the up marks were very, very distinctive!

also, could some air have gotten into the system when i disconnected the vacuum valve on the valve cover and/or when I lifted the valve cover to release the timing belt cover?

man, something just isn't right. and I don't know if it's that 10mm service bolt causing the dragging.

my buddy also said that we just need to adjust the timing on the distributor cap or something. whatever he was talking about, it was the timing of a component away from the the crank/cam shafts.

 

Maybe, yeah.

But before I took off the cover, I turned the crank to TDC1 with a
socket, and I noticed the same points of resistance that you are
talking about, I think.

I figured that there were going to be peaks and valleys of
crank rotation resistance that correspond to times when valve
springs are reaching the end of their travel. When springs are
just starting to compress, they push back less strongly then
when they're already partway squashed.

Dumb question: you did take the plugs out, right? I didn't make
that mistake this time, but I did once in the past, and man,
will you ever notice resistance then.

About that bolt that got left in: that could be serious trouble!

One of the articles I dug up when I was starting this TB job was
from a guy who blocked the balance shaft with a screwdriver
instead of a bolt. He forgot, reassembled, and started without
a manual turn test. The starter torque broke off the end of the
screwdriver inside the engine. D'oh!

I put a huge post-it note on the instruments that says in big
red letters, "HEY DUMBASS, UNBLOCK THE BALANCE SHAFT
BEFORE YOU START THE CAR!" Not that I would ever forget
or anything.

 

Well, thanks for all the input.

I did go out today and remove that service bolt.
My buddy seemed to think it was tightening the
belt. But I have a feeling that with that bolt
in there, I was loosening the belt during it's
travel. Like, I think the tensioner spring is
supposed to go up above the point that that bolt
restricts it too during the normal travel of the
belt. But with that bolt in there, it wasn't able
to go up in it's travel with the spring like it
should.

I also completeley removed the valve cover this time to check out the timing marks for the cam
shaft sprocket that are on the BACK of the cam shaft sprocket. As the article said, these marks that are 180 degrees apart are
supposed to be exactly lined up with the black
timing belt cover thing (not the upper and lower
timing belt cover that you remove). So when I
took the valve cover off completely and rotated
the crankshaft to its marks, I noticed that the
cam shaft sprocket was off just a tooth. So we
got that lined up.

Then with that lined up, we checked the timing
with the covers on and the timing light. Well, it
appears that the ECU automatically retards the
timing a bit (for better low end torque, right).
My buddy shined the light down there and the 3
dots on the crankshaft pulley were constantly
behind (toward the passenger compartment) the
indicator on the timing belt cover. Once we
looped the ECU with the paper clip as instructed
by the haynes manual, we noticed that the timing was no longer retarded. Then after the engine
reached its operating temperature, we could see that the 3 dots on the crankshaft pulley were
dead on with the indicator on the timing belt
cover.

So I took it for a spin and the torque was there
at about 4000 RPM's or so as it was before the timing belt change. So I guess everything's aligned correctly.:thumbup

but the only problem now is a loud noise seemingly
coming from the exhaust system. and this just
started after the timing belt change earlier this
week. don't know what it could be.:dunno: