I have a 99 rl , did t belt . all simple noticed right bank wasnt exact on time but figured it was close about half tooth off. but engine runs funny and feels like missing on take off.. so i forced tbelt in time with tensioner, but made tensioner bearing growl... tried another belt and same thing.. i just cant get right bank to line up with marks... could it be the aftermarket belts... am i just missing something. crank is on time and left cam lines up but right bank is about half tooth off. any ideas..

 

Why do you have to force tensioning pulley to the point to have its bearing growl ? If belt is short with tensioning pulley positioned at minimum ,then belt is wrong length. Have you check if lengths of old and new belt are the same or different ? Check with RockAuto.com website to get right belt.
The last pulley for timing belt to go on is the right camshaft ( passenger side). To have it go on easier rotate the pulley clockwise one half tooth. Adjust tensioning pulley so belt is snug on all pulleys. Rotate crankshaft 5 - 6 turns to seat belt on pulleys. Final tensioning of timing belt - with No1 cylinder at TDC . rotate crankshaft clockwise 10 teeth of camshaft ( blue mark on crankshaft pulley now lines up with pointer on lower cover. Loosen tensioning bolt 180 degrees and retighten to 31 ft lbs. Job done. FYI, these steps from Acura service manual. Hint: Do not turn crankshaft counter clockwise as it'll result in improper adjustments. Good luck.

 

i dont really know. i checked all numbers and all are correct for my engine. i even tried reinstalling old belt but it wouldnt line up either, i did replace water pump , could its pulley be different size. that would cause the length of belt between right and left bank be off , right. hmm . thats something i havnt checked. since i have the tensioner tight im going to replace it after ive ran it for a while . guess when i go back into it ill check or just order another water pump just incase. wrong size pulley on water pump has to be why distance between left and right bank arent lining up . hmmm

 

@jreedwill If it was me I'll get it corrected ASAP, as running engine with tensioner bearing growling means bearings on other components are also subjected to unnessary heavier loading, thus affecting service lives.
Presumming you still have the old WP around, check its pulley diameter with the new WP's. Its been 4years ago since I did mine, so cannot recall how pulley was attached to impeller shaft. If pulleys are indeed different in size, determine if you can switch them around, should be cheaper than buying another WP.

 

@jreedwill Got around and located my brand new WP which I bought w/TB kit 4 years back but did not install when I did the TB switch out. Diameter of WP pulley is 70 mm or 2-3/4" and not easy to remove from impeller shaft. Believe impeller needs to be remove first, then slide shaft w/pulley out from pump body.
If both the old and new WP pulleys are the same diameter, then I would suggest you check this out.
FWIW I recall that when I installed the tensioning pulley bracket to engine block, I initially missed aligning the pivot hole in the tensioning pulley bracket with protruding "dowel" pin on engine block. Only realized the mistake when I correctly installed the second tensioning pulley for the balancing belt i.e. pivot hole in bracket needs to align & drop into this pin before attaching fastening bolt to hold tensioning bracket assembly to engine block. By chance you may have done the same. Do check to be sure. Good luck.

 

As soon as i heard the tensioner i backed ti off.. ive gone back and moved it lil at a time till belt has given enough to almost get marks aligned but not be too tight... the tensioner wouldnt have any thing to do with distance between the cams. i do still have water old pump. ive gone back into belt about 5 times so far... the water pump has to be the reason that distance is off between cams .. like its lil too big and pulls belt down when installed to right cam.. this is sad , i worked on toyotas for 17 years and im not as confident as i was in 2008 when i stopped working on them. and its what i was good at , diagnosing drivability problems.. i think im really over thinking the simpleness of how timing belts work and line up.. thanks for giving me someone to bounce thoughts to .. it really helped me to isolate what i think my problem is,.. probably be a while before i go back into it. tensioner isnt making noise and timing mark is pretty close . already got a new idler to replace this on just incase the tight belt hurt the one on car... but i will be back to tell why , if i do figure it out...