AudiWorld Forums - why is the timing mark on the crankshaft damper in the wrong spot?

Doing a timing belt on my '97 ABZ engine; rented the special tools from Paul W at audipages. Unknown timing belt history on the car, which has over 180k miles on it. Wanted to get it taken care of in case it's never been changed. Seems to run fine.

When I set the crankshaft harmonic damper to the Top Dead Center mark during the piston #1 compression stroke (I have the head covers off so I can see the cam lobes), the 2 cam locking tools to be used at the back of the heads will not line up with their bolt holes (the rear cam cover bolt holes). The cams are already past where they're supposed to be. The piston is also past where it's supposed to be for TDC, since a shishkabob stick resting on the #1 piston through the spark plug hole has already started moving back down again. The circles on the cam chain sprockets aren't lined up directly opposite each other either.

When I turn the engine again, and I stop about 36 degrees before indicated TDC, everything seems to line up. The tools fit, the #1 piston is at the exact top of its travel, and the circles on the cam chain sprockets line up. The crankshaft damper (we always called it a harmonic balancer) does not have a keyway to locate it into the actual crankshaft snout (like in the old US cars I've worked on), but there's a roll pin that makes sure it can only be installed in one location on the sprocket behind it (which I assume is keyed to the crank itself).

Here's what it looks like when everything (except the pointer) is lined up correctly, with the cams locked in place at the top of #1 piston's travel:

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.aud...c89aab63af.jpg
mark doesn't line up with pointer at actual TDC

So should I conclude that the timing mark on the damper was cut in the wrong place? What's it used for anyway? (It has what looks like a "1" and a "0" on either side of the timing mark.) Or is it possible that the pointer is in the wrong spot? The pointer seems to be built into the timing belt tensioning system. I have not taken off the crankshaft sprocket that the damper bolts to. I'm a little leary of taking off the belt now with this question hanging.

Any comments?