Am I OK on my T-belt tension?

[sfriesen]

This is my first T-belt install (on my first engine swap on my first DSM ) so bear with me, I'm just having 1st time reserves before firing the car up.

I followed the vfaq for the most part, but it was all pretty straight forward. I know I was at TDC, cams were lined up properly, as well as the oil pump (even though there are no Balance shafts)

New parts consisted of the belt, idler, and tensioner pully, the hyd. tensioner looked new and had no sign of leakage. My two holes in the tensioner pully are at about 9 & 11 o'clock, and when I pulled the grenade pin (my allen wrench) I got about enough extension that you can almost see the pin-hole in the shaft over the top edge of the tensioner body. When I looked at a fully extended tensioner it looks as though there's plenty more for my tensioner to extend.

A .56 drillbit isn't quite snug between the tensioner pully bracket and the hyd tensioner bracket, but will I still be OK?

Hope this wasn't totally confusing, I've got the cover on already or I'd take pics of everything for reference...

 

[housegsx]

That sounds like it's way too loose. When tensioned properly, you should be able to remove the pin and the body should not extend. You should be able to freely put the pin back in. If the hole is moving out to the end of the body it has too much slack.

 

[sfriesen]

So in other words, I need to get those holes on the tensioner pully at the 11-1 oclock position to get that extra tension back? I had not seen the tips about using 90* needle nose pliers or even an allen wrench to pull the tensioner around farther, and I couldn't get it far enough by hand, again, this is all consiquence of my lack of experience with them, and I can only read so much before I just go out and work on it.

 

[housegsx]

I've tried tensioning the pulley by hand and with a screwdriver. It simply will not work. No way can you put that much tension on by hand. I picked up a pair of 90 degree pliers and that did the trick right away.

I cannot tell you at what position the holes should be at because the 1g is different from the 2g, but just so the tension is proper. That is the main concern.

Once you tension it properly the pin should basically become loose in the body and should be able to slide it in and out. After you do that and verify everything is lined up turn the motor a couple times by hand and make sure the timing marks are perfect (pay close attention the cam marks) and recheck the tensioner. See if you can still slide the pin back in or at least make sure it is real close to sliding back in and you can also check with the drill bit again if you want.

 

[sfriesen]

I think I'll end up leaving it the way it is now. I pulled the belt cover back off last night and checked it out. you can ALMOST slide the grenade pin in the holes, so I was exagerating a little when I say it almost sticks past the tensioner body. The holes on the tensioner pully are virtually identical to the way the vfaq shows them, and my clearance on the shaft is ~.17" which is within the .15"-.18" constraint, I don't see why it's not good to go.