blew my timing belt, accessory belt, and radiator hose...

[Rob®]

You need to use the lower belt gear to line up TDC, not the pulley that has the other belts...Did I read what you wrote incorrectly (it's early, so I'm guessing I did)?

That has nothing to do with the incorrect belt angle though. Hopefully you just didn't clean the mating surfaces when you put the timing gear and pulley back on. Push cam gears back on enough? I'd go over everything again..sorry.

[Jiggerachi]

^ That was just a preliminary check before I tore everything down. I confirmed with the crank gear later. I also set tension and everything with the crank gear, before installing the pulley.

Can you elaborate on your last two sentences? The water pump and pulleys are both brand new out of the box. This is my first TB/WP job, but I followed the tutorial to the T. I didn't see anything else I needed to do when installing these.

To sum up where it sits now...look at the photos in the links I posted. Looks like my problem. For whatever reason one of the idler or tension pulleys has to be canted causing the belt to ride the back of the gears. It has to be one of those pulleys...they're the only pulleys in the system that were changed, and the only ones that could be canted. Most likely defective water pump, or some debris or burr under a pulley. I've seen so far 5 or 6 cases on Miata.net where a WP was machined out of spec and a new one solved the problem.

I'm going to just bust everything completely down tonight providing it's not raining...stupid small garage. I'll do everything in my power not to disturb the crank bolt/locktite patch job. Thing i'm curious about is how I tell if the surface of the WP is machined 1/4 of a mm off... Buy a new pump and use trial & error I guess, and hope the new new pump isn't off as well. It's going to be a fun weekend, hope I get lucky.

[Jiggerachi]

I just re-read your last paragraph. The belt seems to be sitting fine on the crank gear. It would be impossible I think for the gear to go back too far, since it has a machined seat that it mates firmly against. If one of the cam gears were crooked it would wobble and cause other problems. That only leaves the idler/tension pulleys, they're the only ones that could be canted without wobbling since the bearing / mating surface is housed inside the wheel.

Sorry for all the long winded posts. Typing it out helps me think it through.

[Rob®]

Can you elaborate on your last two sentences? For whatever reason one of the idler or tension pulleys has to be canted causing the belt to ride the back of the gears....the only ones that could be canted. Most likely ...some debris or burr under a pulley.

You talked yourself through my last two sentences I meant that when you were installing all the pulleys/gears, that maybe you just didn't clean the parts that rest against something else (read: the back of the pulleys/gear, mating surfaces). You had a lot of dust/dirt from the crank issue, so "hopefully" some got caked up enough to cause the misalignment you have now. Did I explain that any better? Sorry..I'm trying to figure out why our wedding invites are $500 right now

[Jiggerachi]

^Got it.

[Jiggerachi]

I went ahead and just swapped the waterpump out with a gmb from napa. Put the tb back on, tensioned, and cranked for ~ 30 secs (plugs out). Belt stayed put, no tracking. Put everything back together and cranked right up. Very slight whine at first, but went away. Ran for 15 mins or so at idle listening to noises. None to speak of.I haven't driven it yet, but I'm claiming victory at this point. Waterpump must have been out of spec somehow.