Steve777 wrote:
So after a ridiculous amount of delays, I finally am finishing up the head gasket and lifter job I started some months back. Got the fuel, air and cooling systems back in place, filled the coolant and put the timing belt on. Rotated by hand just fine and went to start it.
Well it started just fine (on the 3rd crank which surprised me), and I ran it for a few minutes (coolant was in place so no worries there). Everything seems good, except I noticed something I never did before on the timing belt tensioner.
The tensioner arm (the one with the notch you line up) is moving back and forth a tiny bit every so often. Maybe the half the width of the notch or less. It does this little jump maybe once every few secs, sometimes does a couple in a row, then is still for a while. The tensioner bolt is a new one, and is torqued correctly (well at 25#, I found torque values from 22 to 26. so I did an average) and is not loose. From what I can see motion in this arm is normal, in that is how the tensioner adjusts the tension. And overall the tension adjustment is holding, when the engine stops the tensioner notch is in the same place it originally was set to (after a couple of initial adjustments for stretching).
What I don't know is this little bit of motion in the tensioner normal? I never have looked at any tbelt tensioner before for any length of time while running so maybe they all do it. I just didn't want to button this engine up if this was a sign of some problem that I should deal with now.
What do the experts here think? Do you see slight motion in the tensioner when the engine is running?
Well it started just fine (on the 3rd crank which surprised me), and I ran it for a few minutes (coolant was in place so no worries there). Everything seems good, except I noticed something I never did before on the timing belt tensioner.
The tensioner arm (the one with the notch you line up) is moving back and forth a tiny bit every so often. Maybe the half the width of the notch or less. It does this little jump maybe once every few secs, sometimes does a couple in a row, then is still for a while. The tensioner bolt is a new one, and is torqued correctly (well at 25#, I found torque values from 22 to 26. so I did an average) and is not loose. From what I can see motion in this arm is normal, in that is how the tensioner adjusts the tension. And overall the tension adjustment is holding, when the engine stops the tensioner notch is in the same place it originally was set to (after a couple of initial adjustments for stretching).
What I don't know is this little bit of motion in the tensioner normal? I never have looked at any tbelt tensioner before for any length of time while running so maybe they all do it. I just didn't want to button this engine up if this was a sign of some problem that I should deal with now.
What do the experts here think? Do you see slight motion in the tensioner when the engine is running?
Is it a "new" tensioner or the original one?
The tensioner spring in them does weaken over time and it is advisable to replace the tensioner & pulley assembly along with replacing the two idler pulleys anytime you are replacing the timing belt. More costs, but certainly piece of mind knowing all the parts are new....
Some slight movement is normal, but a lot of "bouncing" is not!