I decided to see if I could slip the belt off of the camshaft pulley
with the crankshaft lined up at TDC. It looks doable and I have a socket
wrench combo that can get at the tensioner bolt to redo the tension
according to my Helm manual once the belt is back on.

Does anyone have enough experience based on what I've shared in these
three posts to judge that the crankshaft pulley was put back on properly
with the key in when whoever screwed this all up? With the crankshaft
pulley at TDC, the camshaft pulley now has the up mark facing downward,
about 5:00, and a marked line on the camshaft pulley on the opposite
side of the pulley from the plastic pointer is approximately lined up
with the pointer.

I am very tempted to try to fix this, but think I should probably wait
to see if I can trust that the #1 piston is truly TDC when the
crankshaft pulley mark is ligned up for TDC. Should i stick something
down the spark plug hole?

Mark