Where will the vid and write up be available from when it’s completed ?
Certainly less chance of damaging anything as long as the four little bolts on the pulley can be undone.
You do not want to snap one of those off - bit of a pig to drill out and the reason I use the gearbox and footbrake method.
I started my cambelt change job last Saturday. See the recent posts on the thread “What did you do to your MX-5 today”.
It eventually took my son holding the car on the brakes and me with a four foot scaffold pole extension on my breaker bar to undo the crank pulley nut. However, I managed with two adjustable spanners to hold the camshafts and a pair of Molegrips to lock them together.
From my very recent experience, I suggest you get some penetrating lubricant on the cam cover screws well in advance. If the head of one of them shears off, as happened to mine last weekend, it’s a difficult job to sort out. Removing one rusted out, broken off screw (the bottom left one as you look in the engine bay from the front) took more time than the rest of the job.
Having said that, the job’s still not finished because I wanted to tidy things up a bit. I’ve had my cam cover vapour/aqua blasted today (came up like new) and I’ve sprayed it with aluminium coloured engine paint. After it’s fully dried it can go back on at the weekend. I also grit blasted the crank pulley at home and sprayed it today with primer and satin black. It was very scabby indeed when I removed it but now looks tidy enough to go back on, too.
Good luck with your belt change!
Thats why i am doing a guide, there is a fixed routine to it, not had one snap yet on these in 30 years.
M-m
OP
PM sent buddy.
M-m
Strange thing. During the very recent renewal of the cambelt on my NB, I was a little concerned that the “E” and “I” timing marks on the cam pulleys didn’t seem to line up exactly the same as they had done with the old belt fitted. I put this down to a little belt stretch (I have no idea how long that belt had been on - it might have been the 21 year old original, although it was in very good condition). I went back to first principles and set the marks as best as I could using the usual procedure but still had to choose "one tooth or t’other; it seemed to sit about half a tooth out. Anyway, job completed the car fired up, idled and ran very nicely so I was happy.
The car needed an MOT. The first MOT in my ownership (done two years ago) was a marginal fail on emissions (Lambda outside limits) and a scrape through after I changed the Lambda sensor. I had actually also bought a new cat convertor as a backup but never fitted it but I was wondering whether it might be needed this year…the car has only done 1500 miles since early 2018.
I had the car MOT’d this morning. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that the emissions are far better than they have been at the last few MOT’s (I have the result sheets going back quite some years). Having passed the MOT (no advisories, just 21 years after the car was first registered) I decided to go out and give the car a celebratory run for its money. I was very surprised to find out how well it now accelerates - it’s a completely standard, non - VVT NB 1.8i. It’s never been slow (as others who have driven with me on club outings will know), but this is quite a transformation. The engine is much more willing to rev, all the way through to the red line.
I’m now wondering if the timing belt was previously replaced but incorrectly set one tooth out and I’ve now set it back to standard, or if I’ve set one of the cams one tooth out and the engine just prefers it that way. It really can’t be anything else, I’ve changed nothing else except stuff directly associated with the cambelt.
Either way, double benefit! 
Completely agree. Especially when re-tensioning.
PS - two adjustable spanners with shafts crossed together and locked together with a molegrip pliers works perfectly well for locking the cams together