Picked up a polaris predator 500 that was WAY out of time, was shooting gas out the the back of carb and would only backfire. Pulled the valve cover and the exhaust cam was a few teeth off. Anyway, put the flywheel/mag at the t mark, aligned both cam sprockets to 12 o'clock and 9, both gold chain teeth lined up..... all looks good until I go to put the tensioner in and upon install it pulls the cam sprockets to the rear and what looks like out of time. Should the marks be exact at 12 and 9 and level with head when the tensioner is installed? Im not sure what im doing wrong here...

 

Tensioner may pull the marks slightly off. As long as you're at tdc,plated links are lined correctly,I wouldn't worry if it it's off a tad. Had that happen on street bikes quite often also. Will do it even more so if a timing chain is stretched,needing replacement.