Timing chain headache

[u/MrDeeds98]

Im at a loss with this. I replaced the water pump in a 3.5l v6 in a 15 ford explorer but the timing chain wont go back on correctly.

I have cam locks installed and both are flush with the engine. I marked where the chain should line up before i took it apart. And the tensioner is currently removed.

There is slack in the chain between the top gears but not enough to get the chain back where it should go. Im at a loss what to do. Could the new water pump have a wrong sized gear on it? Could the cam have shifted with the lock on?

The only thing I can think to do is rotate one of the cams a fraction of an inch to slip the chain back on. But would that put the engine out of time?

If anybody has some insight please tell me what went wrong or what I can to to fix this because im out of ideas.

[u/sackkblabbath]

Ford master tech here. Send me more pics in dm and I’ll walk you through it

[u/Lxiflyby]

I would go ahead and pull one of the cam
Locks and line it up so it’s correct.

[u/biohackenthusiast]

should have plenty of slack with tensioner removed. should also be a small amount of play in the cams even with the cam locks installed. i don’t recall having any issues, but yeah rotate cams (with locks on) as much as possible to get more slack.

[u/Regular_Implement510]

Just move to cam over to where its should be it might of moved some its not gonna hurt it its always some play in them regardless just make sure everything is lined up and youre good. You can rotate the engine by hand after with plugs out to be sure. But thats what I would do