timing belt

Hi, on my 97 jetta gt 2.0 when I have the notch in the damper lined with the mark on the lower timing cover the #1 piston is not at tdc. , what would cause this? Also how do you line up the intermediate shaft sprocket for the distributor? Just a note I went around a couple times and #1 was never up, mark is off 3".

The correct mark to use for the crankshaft is on the flywheel. Viewed through the pluged hole on top of the manual or foward hole on the automatic. Be careful as the V notch is a timing mark, the faint 0 is TDC.

The correct mark to use for the crankshaft is on the flywheel. Viewed through the pluged hole on top of the manual or foward hole on the automatic. Be careful as the V notch is a timing mark, the faint 0 is TDC.
Thanks boschmann that clears me up with tdc on the crank and the cam now where should my mark be set to on the intermediate shaft sprocket , I see a dot and a t-o on the sprocket but can't see nothing on the block.

Take off the distributor cap and look to see if the rotor is pointing in the #1 position. I usually just mark the distributor gear and the block (inbetween 2 gear teeth and block) and when aligning the marks just make sure its good and on. Sometimes the crank pully is intstalled 180 or 90deg off. Just check the cam mark and the tranny view hole.

Thanks guys, I did what you both said, with a new timing belt and it fired right up. This is the first car that I had to check TDC from the flywheel.Thanks again.