• Hey Guest!
    British Car Forum has been supporting enthusiasts for over 25 years by providing a great place to share our love for British cars. You can support our efforts by upgrading your membership for less than the dues of most car clubs. There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Upgraded members don't see this banner, nor will you see the Google ads that appear on the site.)
Tips
Tips

Timing chain tensioner---old or new??

Share this page

A

ALLAN

Jedi Warrior
Offline
In Roger Williams--How To Restore TR Book, he says to use the old tensioner if it looks ok because the new ones dont last, does anybody have any experience with this or disagree??
 
For all practical purposes the tension spring never wears out. If the face of the tensioner is grooved from the chain rubbing on it, replace it. If it is still smooth leave it. Bob
 
Hi,

I've talked to a few people about this. The word I got on the 4-cylinder's tensioner was that the silver colored ones are okay, the black one (anodyzed?) are not. I don't know if the same parts are used in the 6-cyl., or if there are the same issues with parts for that motor if they are different.

Frankly, the tensioner setup isn't that great. It's sort of crude and there are better ways of doing it. Using a spring like that naturally allows some variation in cam timing, due to slackening and tightening of the chain in each engine revolution. But, I guess no one has found a better solution for TRs yet. Apparently Cambridge Motorsports has experimented with a gear drive, but these need to be custom fitted to each engine and reportedly haven't proven very reliable. Maybe we'll have an alternative in the near future, if and when the bugs are worked out.

I'm not sure about the 6-cylinder, but on the 4-cyl., it's important to check the front engine plate behind the tensioner, too, where it rubs. It's often badly gouged by the edge of the tensioner and needs to be filled with brazing, then ground flat to bring it back to an even surface.
 
I almost hate to admit that I ran without one for about 7 years having put in new cam and crank gears and a high quality chain. It had fit with no slack so I thought what the heck. The first failure on my car in the sixties had been the tensioner and it had punched a neat linear hole in timing cover. But I suppose I'll put one back in this time around.
Tom Lains
 
Back
Top