Started to do the upper chain tensioner replacement today on 150K 2001 engine. Driver's side is worn & cracked, but intact, but passenger side is disintegrated with bits of plastic scattered about, and the cam flats don't line up. I rotated the crank by hand to get the driver's side flats to line up, and the intake on the passenger side looks correct, but the exhaust hasn't come quite up far enough to line up, and all the chain slack is on top. The slack will allow the exhaust cam to rotate further out of alignment with the intake, but that seems to be the opposite of what I'm expecting. There is so much slack with the exploded tensioner that jumping a tooth seems possible.

Any other way to tell the correct location for the camshafts? I am using the zip-tie method, but it seems like a zip-tie on the passenger side would just allow me to keep the cam one tooth off if that's what really happened.

Pete

 

My brain is a bit slow this morning, but I think you may be rotating in the wrong direction. I seem to recall it should be clockwise from the front. If you did skip a tooth, it would have been running very rough.

 

Standing in front of the car, it turns clockwise. The cam flats will not line up (it's obvious) if you turn the engine the wrong way- it DOES correct itself once you turn it the correct way.

Did you use the zip tie method?