Timing belt concerns....Digifant

[wolfsburgsfinest]

Any advice appreciated on this issue.

Would this timing procedure be ok?

I have been trying to set the timing on my golf. This is the procedure I used, I have not tensioned the belt yet.

I used a rod placed down the spark plug hole in number 1 cylinder to find TDC. I am having difficulty removing the green plug which shows the TDC marking. It is rock solid, wont budge at all!!

I then aligned the camshaft sprocket marking with the cylinder head flange. As shown in the haynes manual. The intermediate shaft sprocket punch mark was aligned with the crankshaft pulley marker.

I have a question though, with the the distributor. I have not touched or loosened the distributor. I removed the HT leads and as I was turning the intermediate shaft the rotor arm was prefectly aligned with a mark on the edge of the distributor. Which when i placed the dizzy cap back on was aligned with the  number one point for the HT lead. The intermediate shaft aligned with the crankshaft pulley perfectly as the number 1 cylinder was at TDC.
 
Does this procedure sound ok?? Everything seem to line up, but I just cant get the green plug off to check the TDC at the flywheel. Been at it for a while.

Cheers, Rob.

[clipperjay]

Have tried unscrewing the green plug or just pulling at it 
If you have TDC with the rod it should be TDC but guess the flywheel marker will help with timing strobe.

[oakgreener]

I had the same problem with the green plug on mine. I had to run a junior hacksaw blade down the hole in a few places and carefully tap it out of the threads with a screwdriver. Trying not to let too many bits drop into the hole.
I then got another green plug and had to run the hacksaw blade around the threads to get it into the hole. It only screws in about 2 threads now. Good luck.

[Mr Blue]

Sounds fine. Good thing about these is that even if the timing is off / timing belt snaps. They are fine 

The green plug comes out with a small chizzel and hammer. Hammer it anti clockwise obviously.

[Loynes]

When you smash the green plug out,  a spot of white paint (in my case harvest moon) on the timing groove helps the timing strobe a lot.  The garage who timed mine did it from one if the balance lugs on the fly wheel, told me it need injectors to explain the poor running !!!!!!!

[DG370]

Not to tell you how to suck eggs but... Make sure you use the correct timing mark, theres a big notch in the flywheel and a smaller notch about 6mm to the left, it is this small notch you need to use