I have installed the timing belt and timing balancer belt and the tension of the balancer belt seems to me very poor (compared to the timing belt tension). Is this right? I dont want to destroy my engine...

 

If you are asking this question, you have no business attempting this task. I don't mean to sound like a jerk, but you should really not have this type of question if you know what you are doing. Timing belts are not like oil changes. There is a certain procedure you need to follow to time up the engine, route the belts, etc. A Helms or similar manual will have the procedure, and this is a black and white situation. If it's done right, it works, and if not, trouble. I assume you already have the engine torn appart. My suggestion is if you can't have a qualified technician come out to where your car is, have it towed to a reputable garage. I don't mean you should take it to a dealer, but definitely someone who is familiar with this job.

 

yea but he wasnt asking about any of the other stuff, I did the job myself and I found the same thing, the counter balance belt stays quite a bit looser than the timing belt, that is normal, you can control the tension on the counter balance belt, but not the timing belt since the Tbelt has an auto tensioner. I tightened the counter balance belt quite a bit and it still had more slack than the timing belt, so yes, the counter balance belt should have some slack and shouldnt be tight, plus if you overtighten the counter balance belt it will get a little noisy....

 

How can you tighten the balancer belt manualy? The problem is that you install the adjusting bolt AFTER the bottom plastic cover, so there is no way to make it more tight. You cannot reach the balancer belt when you install the adjusting bolt. How did you do it?

 

first off, what engine are we talking about here
i will assume a 93-95 ish h22a

in my opinion, buy a new spring for the timing balancer belt tensioner, its about $3, and its better to be safe than sorry
especially when the lives of all your valves are at stake, along with dinging your pistons, and ruining any number of things in your head.

buy the spring here


illustration #12 (spring B)
honda part# 31430
its the same spring for 92-01 h22 series engines

this is just to be safe, cause i have no idea about the history of the motor or car.

the idea is to put the cover on, and rotate the engine 3 full turns counterclockwise to set the tensioner and seat the belt. after this you can tighten the bolt that sticks out of the cover. and then somehow pin the flywheel or tranny, and torque the crankshaft bolt to 180 ft/lbs

i also assume/hope that you bought the "stopper" for installing the timing belt tensioner, i had to buy this $10 item a while back, but it insures that you install the tensioner correctly and it makes it a hell of a lot easier

stopper...
illustration #25
honda part #31441

~boomer

 

yes, the stopper is important unless you are replacing the tensioner(which may be a good idea anyways) but I was assuming he knew how to do all of that since he was only asking about the tension on the counter balance belt....

 

Thanks for all info. I hadn't the stopper, but I made one myself from aluminium. The timing belt itself is installed correctly and also tthe tension is correct, the auto-tensioner works fine. The problem was the tension of the balancer belt - it seems to be poor in comparsion to the "strong" tension of the timing belt. Someone here said that it is normal that the balancer belt has smaller tension than the timing belt. If so, everything is fine. Of course I made several turns and then tightened the adjusting bolt. It is H22A2, 1995.

 

im 99% sure they didnt make an h22a2

ive been wrong before though...

~boom

 

Yes, they did. I have it in my 4g.