Hi All, I suppose you've all got DOHC engines, so might not be able to help, but here goes. I've never replaced a cambelt before so this was definitely out of my comfort zone, however I'd viewed several helpful YouTube vids and felt like giving it a go. I bought a new SKF cambelt and new idlers and toothed pulley, the tensioner was in good nick and it's pulley was quiet and smooth, so decided not to bother changing it. All went well until I tried to fit the toothed pulley (next to the water pump) and I found it impossible to line up the bolt hole... there was just not enough slack in the cambelt. I refitted the original Subaru cambelt no problem, so put the new one on, same problem. I then found that if I lined up the cambelt mark on the left hand cam sprocket (right-hand as viewed facing the engine) ONE tooth clockwise, then that gave me enough slack to then fit the toothed cog. So, to clarify: all of the timing marks on the sprockets were in the correct places, it's just that in order to get the toothed sprocket to fit, I had to create some slack by having the cambelt timing mark for the left hand cam sprocket one tooth out. I did rotate the engine manually a few times and all timing marks lined up every time. Can you see anything wrong in what I did? If you've got to the end here without brain bleed... Well done!
Sorry its so long winded!

New cambelt and idlers fitted

 

Your simply not doing it right. Fit the belt anticlockwise and take your time.

 

Thanks, I'll give it a try..

 

Well, thanks for that advice... it did fit better that way, don't understand why, but many many thanks, saved me much time and money buying a different belt, thinking the SKF one was somehow not quite right. 👍👍