Tensioner replacement

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Football

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Hey guys,
I put a post up last week in regards to Rough idle and check engine light. Well after taking off the Valve covers I have a tensioner broken on the Right side, 2nd chain. Chains are still good and it didn't jump so I am still in time, phew.
Question is someone posted a message saying he took the Exhaust Cam off in order to get the tensioner out and replace it. Has anyone else do this? I sure don't want to pull the whole front end out!
any feed back is greatly appreciated!
thanks
 
I'm sure someone will chime in but I can tell you that you don't need to take the front end off to get the exhaust cam off.. if it needs to come off, Idk..
 
The thread is on here somewhere. Thorough searching will dig it up. Maybe use google to search the site instead of the rather terrible built-in tool.
IIRC, unbolt all the brackets - keep them in order!! - unbolt the tensioner, can lift up the cam with the tensioner. Swap out, make absolutely sure the cam lines back up precisely like it was before, bolt it all back down.
Or, be a man and do the full job. It's a thrill. You'll only break a few things.
 
Ha,
thanks guys!
I will be doing the job this week. It is still amazing to me that it was designed like this.I will let you all know how it goes.
Gee, I am sooo excited!
 
As much as you prolly don't want to hear this, I would suggest replacing everything behind the timing cover seeing you have had a problem. I broke a secondary timing chain and had to do a lot more work than if it was just the tensioner that had gone bad. I had to pull the head and have it fixed. I replaced all the chains, guides, tensioners, and seals while I was into the teardown. That was about 30k miles ago with no problem. If you just fix that one tensioner, then you WILL have problems in the near future. Just a fair warning. Good Luck!!
 
SlickLS said:
As much as you prolly don't want to hear this, I would suggest replacing everything behind the timing cover seeing you have had a problem. I broke a secondary timing chain and had to do a lot more work than if it was just the tensioner that had gone bad. I had to pull the head and have it fixed. I replaced all the chains, guides, tensioners, and seals while I was into the teardown. That was about 30k miles ago with no problem. If you just fix that one tensioner, then you WILL have problems in the near future. Just a fair warning. Good Luck!!
Click to expand...

Agreed. If one went, the others probably aren't far behind.
 
Working with a friend, the full timing chain job took around 40 hours of work. Just working on one head could be done in an afternoon easily. Removing the accessories is by far the hardest part. Those bolts freeze solid and are hard to get good torque.
 
I totally agree with you all, just can't afford the time to do it all at once and hoping to get 2 months out of it and THEN do the whole job.
Right now just going to replace the one tensioner and then go back.
I am in the process of taking the exhaust cam off and pulling the tensioner out that way.
Tough part is its so tight, I think i have to take the gear off as well to create enough slack to get the tensioner out.
Does that make sense?
 
Once you do that, you have no control on the timing any more. The sprocket is NOT keyed to the cam - it's just held in place by tension from the bolt.
While timing is still good, rotate the engine so the flats near the front of the cams are lined up. You can then use a level or anything flat across them and the head to try to keep lined up.
Messing up the timing of the cam will affect performance.
Hopefully you can just lift the cam out along with the tensioner, sprocket, chain, etc. Rotate everything up and pull out the tensioner. Also compress the thing and put in a pin.
 
Thanks Oddball,
I know its a very dangerous job and making sure the timing doesn't move makes me nervous but I do have everything in line so I will let you know want happens.
 
Football said:
I totally agree with you all, just can't afford the time to do it all at once and hoping to get 2 months out of it and THEN do the whole job.
Right now just going to replace the one tensioner and then go back.
I am in the process of taking the exhaust cam off and pulling the tensioner out that way.
Click to expand...

I can remember a member on here did the same thing and ended up having a problem before he got back to doing the whole job. They make a special tool that holds the cams in place so that you can hold the cam in time while taking off the secondary chain and tensioner. I would suggest you do the full job as soon as you can to avoid having a chain break and having to pull a head like I had to do. That was no fun at all. Just think, people have a hard time changing the driver side valve cover, so imagine having to pull the driver side head. Good Luck!!!
 
FWIW, a friend has made the fixture to hold/time the cams. It's just drilled bar-stock and bolts and nuts.

KS
 
Just a little update.
I replaced the tensioner on the left side, only to find out that the chain is stretched.
Or so I hope? So i have the kit ordered from Christopher Imports and I will let you know how it goes.
 
I was in the same situation as you and not wanting to do the full job a few months ago so I just did the drivers side secondary...

SlickLs is dead on with his "replace it all" mentality.

It knocks just about the same again at low rpm and I suspect its the main chain tensioner, the sound seems to come from down low on the drivers side/middle.

That slack you see may not be there once you start it up and oil pressure holds the tensioner taught.

When I was spinning the motor over by hand it seemed to go loose and tight with the new tensioner in place but no pressure to hold it tight.

I've been looking for a write up on the process but have yet to find it thru the search on here.
 
Gunther1000 said:
SlickLs is dead on with his "replace it all" mentality.
Click to expand...

In my case, my chain broke so I had to pull the driver's head therefore having to take the timing cover off anyways. I figured if a few things behind the cover is about to be new, might as well make it all new so you know you won't have problems in the future. The LS motor tends to hold up very well on the bottom end, but has timing assembly problems. Upon inspecting my main chain guides and tensioners, you could see some hairline cracks so failure from that part was coming soon also. I have taken a lot of law classes and realized to just cover your a$$ from the beginning.
 
Well guys, this weekend I am replacing the Upper Tensioners on BOTH sides and the Upper Chains. I orders the Upper Kit from Christophers Import and for $250 I got the 2 chains, 2 tensioners and cover gaskets.
The chains are the Master Link chains so I will take off the Exhaust Cams on both sides and put in the chains. Fingers crossed this will solve my problem. The chain on the left side stretched, which is why I am replacing the chains. Once I get it all back together I will put in the plugs and coils and start it up before putting the covers back on just to make sure. Fortunately the flat part of the cams are still lined up on each side, (ALTHOUGH) not the same left side and right side, which I understand is ok, so long as the Intake and Exhaust on each side are lined. I will let you guys know how it turns out.
 
Football said:
Well guys, this weekend I am replacing the Upper Tensioners on BOTH sides and the Upper Chains. I orders the Upper Kit from Christophers Import and for $250 I got the 2 chains, 2 tensioners and cover gaskets.
The chains are the Master Link chains so I will take off the Exhaust Cams on both sides and put in the chains. Fingers crossed this will solve my problem. The chain on the left side stretched, which is why I am replacing the chains. Once I get it all back together I will put in the plugs and coils and start it up before putting the covers back on just to make sure. Fortunately the flat part of the cams are still lined up on each side, (ALTHOUGH) not the same left side and right side, which I understand is ok, so long as the Intake and Exhaust on each side are lined. I will let you guys know how it turns out.
Click to expand...

i had brought the 1st gen tensioners from the dealer. the 1s prone to failure. now i got the one from cris auto parts as well... wat i want to know is with the 1st gen tensioners the pressure is sooooo strong as in its hard to compress it with a wrench... yet the updated ones from Cris auto parts is very easy to compress... even by hand... does that have any effect on the chains since they are so oppositely strengthened??? just wanna know before i do this complete job...
 
Dark Kent said:
i had brought the 1st gen tensioners from the dealer. the 1s prone to failure. now i got the one from cris auto parts as well... wat i want to know is with the 1st gen tensioners the pressure is sooooo strong as in its hard to compress it with a wrench... yet the updated ones from Cris auto parts is very easy to compress... even by hand... does that have any effect on the chains since they are so oppositely strengthened??? just wanna know before i do this complete job...
Click to expand...

Kinda hard to follow the message here. How are you compressing something with a wrench?

You can squeeze the upper tensionners by hand. They use oil pressure to actually load the chains. Their internal springs are just to hold things in place when the engine isn't running.

Your old ones may be clogged with crud from the oil feed. My originals that came off were easy to compress.
 
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