VVC Rear belt Alignment

[Midas]

I'd like a bit of advice/sanity check - went to replace the rear belt on my K Series VVC. 

The photo shows the alignment of the cams and belt when I first took off the cover. It's run like that for over 5 years.

I have changed the belt but cannot get more accurate alignment than it was originally - as shown on the photo - I can't seem to get it dead-on straight. It's either half a spoke out one way or another.

The engine is original. - and I have replaced the front cambelt first this morning and that is all nicely aligned. Flywheel/cams were locked before I tried to do remove any belts. 

Am I doing something wrong?

[revilla]

The accuracy of the drilling for the roll pins in the ends of the cams is not wonderful. It's quite normal to see that level of misalignment on the rears.

If the front all lines up correctly, then the rear exhaust cam pulley must be correct as it's fixed in relation to the front one. In your picture the offset on the rear inlet is in the same direction as the exhaust, i.e. if you rotate the engine slightly so that the exhaust cam timing mark moves into alignment with the centre line ribbing on the cover, the inlet side will also move into alignment rather than ending up one tooth out.

Without doing a full alignment with modified offset dowels amd timing gauges, I'd say that's as close you're going to get and perfectly normal. I've seen worse!

[Midas]

Thanks for the replies and 'thumbs up' - always better to check