[URGENT] Timing belt cover & drive belt installation question

Thanks only1db. I loosened the 12 mm nut at the bottom of the alternator, but maybe not enough. The alternator swings to the back when I push, but not completely. It stops at half way of the adjusting slot. I will try again tomorrow because it began to rain this afternoon. In the instruction sheet of the Gates timing belt, it didn't mention the direction of the belt. I have kept the old timing belt, and it shows five parallel arrows in every foot on the belt: that means the belt is directional. New belt doesn't have such image at all. But the instruction sheet states that if the belt is reused, it should follow the direction of rotation marking.

One more question: When you changed the water pump, did you change the O ring inside the inlet pipe? It is supposed to do according to the shop manual. I had the water pump changed last time at the dealer. When I removed the water pump this time , there was no O ring. I inserted a new O ring anyway. It was surprising that it didn't leak even though they forgot it.

Last time when I had my timing belt replaced at the dealer, they stripped the timing belt cover gaskets away because installing especially the lower timing belt cover with gasket is pain. The oil leak from the valve cover ran down to inside the timing belt covers and the grooves were full of oil. I was lucky that the oil didn't contaminate the belt yet.

It looks like the square bolt at the other bottom side of the alternator may be blocking the alternator from further moving. Nothing else is blocking. Do I need to loosen the square bolt?

I thought that the square bolt at the bottom of the alternator may be the problem, but I will try again tomorrow afternoon and keep you updated.

According to the Hyundai service website and Chilton's manual, new O ring is required to be inserted at the end of the inlet pipe right behind the water pump during water pump replacement procedure. However, O ring may not be a critical factor if you have good seal in the water pump gasket. I know the importance of the O ring when I tried to repair leaking kitchen faucet. Simple O ring replacement stopped water leak.

My lower timing belt cover was cracked while I tried to put it back during my last belt change. I was able to glue it and reused. It is much easier to insert the lower timing belt cover without the rubber gasket because there is more leeway. That's why the dealer stripped away the gaskets.
If you look at the shape of the cover, it has top, neck and the trunk. The top is much wider than the neck. You must push it up through the narrow opening between the motor mount and the water pump. Normally, the top cannot pass through the area without tweaking it: just squeeze the top in and force it to slip through the bottleneck. The timing belt cover is flexible to some extent, but not a lot. Be careful not to break it. I was able to attach new rubber gasket into the grooves with sealant and install it successfully. (Or, you can simply remove the motor mount on the engine block. It will be much easier to install the lower timing cover, but it takes extra half an hour to do that.)

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I think I found what the problem is: the alternator bracket was slightly misaligned by a few mm. I had a trouble to install the alternator bolt A. The bolt A goes trough the adjusting slot and I couldn't put the bolt back in. While I was videotaping the trouble area this morning to post, I discovered the problem. I loosened the four bolts ( two to water pump and two to power steering bracket) and aligned the adjusting slot of the alternator bracket and tightened again, then it works fine now. Problem solved! I am going to mount the alternator-water pump belt tomorrow and finish the timing belt job. I will keep you updated after I finish the job. Thanks.

I just mounted the alternator-water pump belt and adjusted the tension. I reconnected the battery and turn on the ignition.
Voila! It was good, but a little rattling noise from the timing belt cover area. It's not bad, but a little dull noise, maybe timing belt is hitting the cover. It looks like a blower noise from the furnace in my basement. It's not high pitch whirling noise. I might need to adjust the timing belt tension.
I set the tensioner key hole to 11 o'clock position as I did in the past. I discovered this knowhow from a Korean Automotive College website before. The web page disappeared since then. I remember you once said that the key hole should be set at 5:30 or 6 o'clock position. I didn't know this knowhow when I changed my timing belt last time. The tension of the timing belt was so high that it made loud whirling and rattling noise. I kept driving for almost three weeks with this noise. After I adjusted the tensioner key hole to 11 o'clock position, the noise immediately disappeared. Since then I drove more than 90,000 miles. I inspected the old timing belt and it looked pretty good. I could've driven maybe 10,000 miles more, but I didn't want any risks. Since I drove for three weeks with high tension timing belt, I thought it may have shortened the life of the belt.
Any reliable information about setting the tensioner keyhole should be greatly appreciated.