I'm in the process of prepping my car (TW Verada) for a timing belt change. I am trying to line the timing marks on the crank pulley and the cam pulleys, however they won't line up. When I get the crank pulley right, the cam marks are sitting around 2 o'clock (rear) and 11 o'clock (front). I have rotated the crank a couple of times and it makes no difference.

Has anyone ever encountered this before?

What are you lining the crank up with?

you cant be lining it up properly, if the cams were that far out, you car would be broken. 2 oclock is 60 degrees advance. (30 degress advance as crank is 2:1 for cam)

tdc isnt vertical, there are marks on the cam pulleys that need to line up with the marks on the motor. its been years since i did one on a magna so i am unsure as to where they line up...

Cam marks line up with the small V mark in the rocker cover

Check the manual.
If you haven't got it, do get it before you go further. Read and learn. Getting flustered at this stage is not a good sign if you are doing your own belt swap.

Thanks. I have the manual and I am following the instructions. I am lining the small dot on the crank pulley with the line on the motor. I've done timing belts before with no problems. Taking my time as the car doesn't need to be back on the until the end of next month. One thing I did do was remove the tensioner before lining it up (did not remove the timing belt). When I realised I put it back on - making sure the belt was tight etc. Could this have caused a problem?

Yeah man, clearly didn't follow the instructions properly lol

You have jumped teeth, hope you have not bent valves

Remove or back off all rocker gear, sit covers back on and line everything up


Next time you follow instructions actually follow them and if you had done timing belts before you would know that you line up the crank and cams before you touch anything

You can actually remove the hydraulic tensioner first if you need to, but you should put bulldog clamps on the cam belt and sprocket and not turn the engine over while the tensioner is off, but the smart thing to do is get everything lined up before removing the tensioner.

Take the belt off, then put the crank in the right spot, then go anticlockwise about 45 degrees so no pistons are at the top, then line up the cams, then get the crank back to top dead centre.

Thanks guys. Yep I acknowledge I screwed up by jumping ahead. If I've done damage then I'll cop it sweet. If so it'll be the first time in 20 years of doing most mechanical maintenance on my cars. I figure I've saved thousands of dollars so if this ends up costing me more to get fixed then I'm still way in front.

If you have not tried to start the engine then good chance there is no damage.
If you have been trying to turn the motor by hand normally common sense would stop you forcing it if it comes to a stop.
Hopefully you have avoided an expensive rebuild. Vee

+1 on the above.

. . . . unless you hit the starter motor . . . .

I have only turned it over by hand and the only resistance was (at least felt like) normal compression.

All good then.

Thanks everyone. It's all back together and running well.

Thanks everyone. It's all back together and running well.

Congratulations!

(I would add a picture of fireworks going off, but as this is a "no spam" thread, please use your imagination instead. lol)