I am about to change my timing belt and tensioner. I found that when the dot on the crank timing belt sprocket is dead on the notch in the timing belt cover, the cam sprocket triangle is not lined up with the pointer. Should I assume it was last installed incorrectly and is one tooth off, or maybe it jumped timing at some point? The engine didn't run when I bought the car but after a good deal of ignition troubleshootin g, I found and fixed the problem and got it to run. I could get it to idle but I can't say it ran great. The exhaust was bad and very loud.
My question: When I put it back together, should I leave the pulleys in their current position which I think is wrong, or put it back together the way I think the pulleys should be lined up. The crank pulley does seem to point at the TDC marking better when the cam position is the way it currently is so I do believe the cam sprocket is wrong, not the crank sprocket.
Just looking for reassurance from you experts! I am in the middle of the job now and will likely be done before I get an answer, but if anyone is lurking, I would love to hear your opinion.