Broken timing belt

The Geo needed work, unfortunatly before I could replace the timing belt...
Of course when the timing belt failed the timing went out in a major way. So in replacing the belt I am now having problems getting it back in time. Down to the parts store, new belt and a manual. I am not the best mechanic, but deffinatly not the worst. Have rebuilt eight cylinder engines and gave it a go.
:banghead: There should be only one way it will work. If so I haven't found it yet. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I am at wits end. Aslo the manual said NOT to turn the crank backwards but didn't say what would happen. The engine was replaced and am not sure that the year of the engine, title says '92. I will be really upset to loose this car. She even ran with a bad water pump. Didn't find that out till I took it apart. Aslo I went the ol' route of removing valve cover and visually watching the valves with #1 plug pulled to get TDC. And the engine is 3 cylinder. Apologies for the lack of info.

Setting the timing is pretty easy. Make sure that the timing mark on the cam sprocket is aligned with the small notch on the valve cover. That timing mark on the cam sprocket will be pointing up. Now, the crank sprocket timing mark needs to point up also in alignment with the cam sprocket. So both sprockets will have the timing marks pointing up. The trick is to get the timing belt on without moving both sprockets. Take the time to do it right and double check. Don't worry about moving the crank backwards, just get them aligned and she will fire right up.

This is NOT the same as the V8s (where the timing marks point towards each other).
Good luck.

what is your car and engine?