I have a 2000 Isuzu Rodeo that I noticed the water pump was leaking on. I bought the new water pump and installed it and a new timing belt. All the timing marks lined up just like the repair manual said. When I finished putting it all back together the car will not start. The engine won’t roll over. I took everything back off of it to check the belt again and noticed the cam sprocket on the drivers side had lost position by a tooth. Any ideas on what would cause this? I triple checked everything before I put it all back together.
Rotate the engine by hand twice, and see if the timing marks still line up.
If not, the timing belt was installed where there’s slack other than at the tensioner. And when that happens, it can cause a cam sprocket to rotate slightly when the tensioner is released.
So there can be no slack between the sprockets. Only at the tensioner.
Tester
Rotate in the same direction that the engine runs, do not rotate backwards.
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