Having seen a few threads over the years by frustrated owners unable to match cambelt timing marks against the backplate, I had an opportunity whilst changing a cambelt this morning to grab a picture of the issue and the cause of the problem, it demonstrates why the cambelt & sprockets timing marks are often at odds with the back plate marks and why the backplate marks are for rough estimate only.

 

 

The backplate holes have a small but not insignificant amount of movement around the fixing bolt and when tightened to the block can slip left and right if not held in the correct place, the picture shows the centre section where the left and right hand backplates meet, they have very specific cut out that are supposed to be matched up before nipping the bolts up, this one was clearly not centred and left the left hand marks a good way out, not exactly a problem provided your in the know...

 

Jeff TT

 

Another top tip!!

 

Thanks for sharing that Jeff.....

 

Richard:cool3:

Great info Jeff:thumbup1:

You are most definitely a living legend in the zed world!!!

I just wrote a new thread regarding this very issue and while wondering what could cause it to happen I thought the backplate must be out one side. Then remembered there was a thread about it not long ago and it was possibly Jeffs so trawled through his threads until I found it, checked it and yep exact same thing here. So thanks Jeff!

 

My question now is, is it just a case of holding the left backplate down into that recess whilst re tightening the bolts that hold it?