How much tension is enough? When I push on the belt how much should be the belt move? What about torqueing the crank pulley down? Any suggestions?

 

This may help:

 

Now I'm confused....
So first you loosen the adjusting bolt then push the adjuster down as far as it will go then tighten the bolt a little bit. Slip the belt over all the pulleys in the correct order. Loosen the adjusting bolt again. Rotate the crank. Tighten tensioner to full torque. This is all with the pulley off correct? Then you put the crank pulley on. What do you do after that? I'm not sure how you will be able to get at the adjusting bolt after you get the pulley on and get the lower timing cover on.

 

The lower timing belt cover on my 97 Civic (D16Y7) has a plugged hole that gives access to the adjusting bolt. Remove the plug to loosen and tighten the bolt. When done, reinsert the plug into the access hole to prevent debris/dirt/oil from entering the timing belt area.

 

I just do it with the covers off. Put the bolt and pulley on temporarily so you can turn the crank and set the tension. Then take the bolt out again and put the cover on.

 

The service manual says to adjust the timing belt tension with the lower cover and pulley installed (after 5-6 full turns of the crankshaft pulley), though I don't know whether following these exact instructions is really essential.

 

When I did it, I just had the bolt on. Didn't install the pulley. Is that really necissary?

 

It'll be OK to just have the bolt in, as long as the belt is in it's normal position all the way back on the crank sprocket. That's why I suggested installing the pulley too (and the curved washer that goes on the side of the sprocket) to make sure it is.

 

[align=left]Ok well I'm in a bad situation guys. I pulled the timing belt off and was installing the new water pump and as I was putting the bottom left water pump bolt in it snapped off inside the block. Well i drilled it and inserted an extractor but when i tried to twist the bolt out the a tiny piece of the corner of the block where the bolt goes into snapped off. And also the extractor broke off inside the drilled bolt. I have no idea how to fix this. There is no room to work cause the frame rail is right next to where i need to be. Do you guys have any suggestions?? Worst case scenerio I will have to pull the motor and fix it then so I can have room. The ****ty part is I just got this car last week now I have to pull themotor. I'm so pissed! Do you think if I get the motor out and drill the hole big enough I can put a heli coil in there? The problem is the tiny piece of the corner of the block that broke off took some of the threads with it. I don't know what to do guys. Please help me! [/align]

 

If you remove both the left side motor mount and the A/C motor mount, you may be able to lift the engine from the oil pan high enough to complete the repairs without removing the entire engine.