Hello -
I posted on the montero sport site as well, but I've always gotten great technical help here so...

I set the crank to TDC got all the old components off and new ones on. Set a "default" tension on the belt and cranked it by hand. About 1/4 rev of the crank and the passenger's cam skipped a tooth, and as I tried to reposition the drivers side skipped one or two.

Maybe I'm over-complicating it but I want to make sure I don't have any interference as I try to get every thing back to square one to start fresh.

I'm hoping that just being off a tooth or two will still give me the clearance I need to rotate back to tdc (after increasing tension), then release the tension and roll the cams back to proper alignment and start over but make sure to give the belt enough tension.

Is this going to work? Is there something else I need to allow for?

I have found some more guidelines on how to get the belt securely in place before test-rotating, so I think I'll be all right once I get to that point (this is my 3rd TB, you'd THINK I would have it figured out by now... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/shiner.gif" alt="" />)

I'd reposition it again and make sure it doesn't skip a tooth. In my experience, binder clips are great to help hold the belt in place on one cog/gear while I work on getting it on the other cogs/gears. That and an extra pair of hands are invaluable.

I wouldn't leave it at 1 tooth off myself.

Yeah, the clips are helping, but I've reset it, tensioned, and checked several times now and haven't gotten it to line up yet. I've probably been through 5 cycles.
What's worse is I've just realized that my timing belt is rubbing the water pump so it looks like I have the wrong water pump.

Super, there's another week of nagging from the wife while I wait on the RIGHT WP.

Back up and restart from go.

Hand rotate the engine to half stroke, hold the cams in place. This makes all the pistons clear of the valves. Set the cams to the timing mark. One will be at the "bottom" of the varying valve induced cam rotation, and the other will be precariously balanced at the point of the cam lobe. I like to catch the crank sprocket by a quarter inch with a binder clip on the left side, go to the dside cam and catch the same quarter inch, careful to leave no slack, carefully catch the pointy rest cam paying special attention to the slack, slightly rotating the cam with a wrench to perfectly align the belt, then catch the tensioner preset alignment, hand holding out any slack. I then tap the belt on sprocket by sprocket with a light soft face hammer going around the circle. Release the tensioner and hand rotate the engine two complete cycles to test for any interference and to check that all realigns each rotation.

I hope you replaced the crank bolt

http://www.4x4wire.com/forums/showt...mber=1198241&page=0&vc=1

Timing marks below

He's got the sohc 24v motor...

I did finally get it lined up. Probably took 10 times or so.

What worked for me was -
with the belt on, set the crank ccw 1 tooth from tdc.
Remove belt, align ps cam, set ds cam one tooth ccw from alignment.
Install belt starting with ps cam (clipped) -> wp -> ds cam (clipped) -> idler -> crank -> tensioner.
Apply tension.
When I spun it by hand the marks came out dead on.

I still have the WP rubbing problem, although it appears to be VERY slight.
My plan is to remove the belt again and give the wp some "refinement" with a dremel tool. Obviously the best option would be to find a part that fits correctly, but after a week in the garage time is critical and I see no reason removing ~1/16" of mat'l in a couple places would cause a problem.
I THINK I can reset it in one try now, even though I hate the thought of backtracking after 2+ hrs of trying to set it.

I spent about an hr grinding down various spots on the GMB water pump to make it fit. So be extra careful when purchasing a GMB or have the grinding tools you'll need to make it work.

Hey - nice feature of this motor - I didn't have to remove the a/c and bracket in order to get to the timing belt. Too bad I didn't realize it until I already took it off!

Good to know in case I decide to do my timing belt and headgaskets on the truck.. I think I've already decided to remove my engine for a week anyway to do all the work since the rear main is leaking.