timing belt: tight

[geospider]

hey guys, probably nothing new here.
ready to put timing belt back on; new water pump, tensioner, etc. everything lined up nicely (thought not so hard to do).
can not get belt to slip over the tensioner.
as I have read: shouldn't be tight until the tensioner is released/set. I need very little slack to slide it. belt is tight on all cogs.

ideas.

thanks

Geo

[focodave]

Geo,

Stupid question: are you sure you have a belt for the 1995cc engine and not for the 1800cc engine?

Also, if you have established that you have the correct belt: perhaps you did not set the tensioner pulley far enough to allow the belt to go on freely. You need to loosen and tighten the actual tensioner shaft bolt along with the other bolt when you are positioning the tensioner pulley, whether you are setting it for belt installation -- or -- for tension once the belt is in place.

Dave

[RRoller123]

+1 on both those ideas.

[joelittel]

Sometimes the belt isn’t fully seated on the crank gear, causing it to be very tight everywhere else.

[geospider]

Thanks for responses.
I pulled the tensioner back as far as I could, maybe 3/4" (didn;t measure)
Reset the belt on the cogs as best I could: able to move the belt and crank pulley together (assuming that should mean it is set in the grooves).
ordered the timing belt replacement kit: will check the number on the box with AR tomorrow.
1/2" longer and it is on.

[gjones1967]

1 belt has two more teeth than the other (yes I found out the hard way) if I remember correctly the 1800 is the slightly shorter belt. There some posts on here referring to it which is how I found out.

[geospider]

well, you buy it as a set and you hope ok.
if that is all it is, i'll take it. the process wasnt so bad; gotta admit, had been nervous, but not so bad other than not fitting

how tight is a new belt?

the last thing like this I did was a chain and tensioner on a 1976 Celica

[gjones1967]

This was the first timing belt I have ever changed so I'm no expert. When I put it on I gauged how tight it needed to be by trying to move it on the various pulleys ( back and forth motion). I could not slide it on the teeth so I figured that was good.

One thing I would say to beware of. Check how far back you put the belt on the crankshaft pulley. I had it too far towards the engine so it looked like it my rub at various points so I had to take it off and situate it a few millimeters forwards.

[focodave]

well, you buy it as a set and you hope ok.
if that is all it is, i'll take it. the process wasnt so bad; gotta admit, had been nervous, but not so bad other than not fitting

how tight is a new belt?

the last thing like this I did was a chain and tensioner on a 1976 Celica

The belt will be pretty tight when the tensioner spring is released and the tensioner is putting pressure on the belt.
You let the tensioner spring put the correct amount of tension on the belt by itself -- you do not want to manually try to put more or less pressure on the tensioner.
After slipping the belt around all of the pulleys, you loosen the two bolts on the tensioner (the tensioner shaft bolt and the spring bolt) and simply let the tensioner find its place without aiding it. Then tighten the two tensioner bolts. That will put the correct amount of tension on the belt.

The belt should definitely not be so tight that you have to force or pry it on the pulleys when you are attempting to install it.

[RRoller123]

I was shipped the wrong (shorter belt) once and couldn't get it on the pulleys. It gets close but no cigar, very frustrating. It is only a little different, longer on the 2L engine, presumably to account for the fact that the 2L is a stroked 1800, thus the crank sits a little further south. The belt difference between the two is only a few teeth.

[geospider]

update: well, seems it may be the right belt, but from a "substitute" supplier. States this is the right one: 148 vs 146 teeth.
will try again this weekend, then may just order new one (along with other stuff: always like that)
Geo

[focodave]

Why don't you simply count/compare the number of teeth on your original belt to the number of teeth on the new belt that doesn't fit?
That might tell you if the new belt is correct or not...

[geospider]

Mainly because I tossed it months ago when I pulled the head to have it redone
But I thought about it

[gjones1967]

I think the short is 144 and long is 146 teeth

[focodave]

The correct belt for the 1995cc engine has 148 teeth.
I have two old belts in my collection of parts -- I just counted them both, multiple times, to make sure.