timing belt alignment problem

[blownm20]

A week ago my neighbor came to my house asking me to replace the timing belt for his 84' henna 325e. I've done this before on my e30 so it wasnt a problem for me to say yes. While i was getting the sprockets aligned i noticed the crankshaft sprocket wasn't marking up to the TDC, but the camshaft was. The weird thing is the car was running perfect before i put it on the stands and began to work. Now the belt is off and i want to do this by having to markings all correct.

So my question is how to get the markings correct. The T/O marking is more than 1/4 of a turn off. When i attempt to turn it, it locks up. I'm sure i need to move the camshaft but i don't want to fuck anything up without someone else's advise.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[jlevie]

I'm not sure what you have done, but it is possible to get the crank and cam back into alignment without removing the head. Though pulling the head is the safest way.

Use the marks on the crank hub for this, which you can see with the harmonic balancer off. Gently rotate the crank, using a wrench on the crank bolt until you feel interference. Then gently rotate the cam to free up the valves. Continue until you get the crank hub marks and the cam marks aligned.

[blownm20]

I got the cam and crank in alignment but the markings are still off. The car is running perfectly. Anyone know what could cause these markings to be off?

[paperplane94]

I got the cam and crank in alignment but the markings are still off. The car is running perfectly. Anyone know what could cause these markings to be off?

Sounds like maybe the vibration dampener is not sitting well or is not indexed properly.

Remove the bolts holding it on and make sure the indexing pin is sitting properly. Do the same for the cam sprocket.

If you find that the crank hub is also out of alignment then there is a bigger problem.