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tensioner pulley orientation

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Simonsaysr1

Proven Member
135
11
Jan 30, 2016
Rocky mount, North_Carolina
on a 7 bolt im sure the tensioner tool holes are supposed to be underneath the 14mm lock bolt right? mine was 180* out of rotation. the tensioner tool holes are at the top, when i go to tighten the 14mm lock bolt , it tends to make the tensioner get tighter. now ive heard it both ways. ive been told the tensioner holes are at the bottom. but alot of videos show the holes at the top on 7 bolt blocks?
 
Bottom for a 7 bolt. Top for a 6
 
So after I flipped the tensioner pulley around to where the pin holes are down. The h tensioner seems to not want to retract to line the pin holes up. I spent three hours playing with it and couldn't get it to set right? The holes wouldn't line up for nothing. Loose or tight and everything between . I messed with the tensioner tool as well and just couldn't get the right result?? I'm pissed off and puzzled . How could something so simple be so hard. Btw trying to do this in the engine bay is a major pita
 
So it might have to be pins up? I'm sure this has been decked a few times haha
so many small details can be easily missed like this case, while trying to learn how to work on this. No rebuild write ups even mention this issue. im assuming its rotated to make up for the slack of the belt from the decked surfaces?
 
That is true @Simonsaysr1. What you need to make sure of is that when the tensioner is in the other position, that it doesn't interfere with anything, like the water pump or any bolt heads, etc.
If it will clear all obstacles then tension it up, just be aware of any interference problems before you call it good! :thumb:
 
This confuses me big time because I have a 7-bolt, though its a 1g, and the timing tensioner pulley could only go on one way and be rotated clockwise or it would hit the bracket and you couldnt tighten the belt. So I take it that the 1g and 2g is different in this case?
 
oh just re read that haha. so im just not getting my adjustment right i guess. Im going to retry today with a fresh mindset. I dont understand why he had the tensioner pulley 180rotated . Honeslty i thought this would be a pretty straight forward job. but working behind someone elses job always makes me second guess( did he do this for a reason). now im beginning to wonder if it has the correct H tensioner
That is true @Simonsaysr1. What you need to make sure of is that when the tensioner is in the other position, that it doesn't interfere with anything, like the water pump or any bolt heads, etc.
If it will clear all obstacles then tension it up, just be aware of any interference problems before you call it good! :thumb:
it wasnt hitting anything before hand, i just dont like that its putting lateral force on a standard thread bolt on an eccentric hub(feel like it can back off). it ran for several thousand miles no problem. im going to try again today the correct 7 bolt method, worst case i guess ill have to run it like he had it previously. but also does anyone have any problems with their eccentric pulley slipping on them (tighter 2g orientation/ looser 1g orientation) when trying to acheive the 36lbs the locking bolt requires. i cant fit two ratchet heads in the small space of the engine bay( no extensions) to get anything bigger than an 8mm wrench or a stubby 1/4 ratchet to hold the special jays timing tool piece. it tends to walk on the final torque down. i feel like this is causing me alot of headaches.( even tried less lbs of torque to walk it up to spec with no luck.)
 
I guess my main question is. can the orientation of the eccentric pully affect the spacing of the tensioner arm to the Hydraulic tensioner. also if a 1g can run the pullley with the pin holes at the top (without backing out) why shouldnt a 2g be able to. and 3rd, why in the world did the original owner have it upsidown to start with ?
 
I have no idea if it is possible, but is it for sure a 7 bolt tensioner arm? Not a 6 bolt arm?
7s are longer so I don't know that its even possible to run one but trying to think outside the box.
Stretched belt + milling???
 
This is a 6 bolt, for reference ....
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I have both arms somewhere, I could measure them and everyone would know the length differences. Let me look.....
 
6 bolt tensioner on top, 7 on bottom.
Looks to be 4 5/8 for a 6 bolt, 4 7/8 for a 7 bolt plus a 7 bolt tensioner arm has a hump in the bottom where the 6 bolt is basically flat on comparison .
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Last edited:
Are you sure its 6-bolt and 7-bolt and not 1g and 2g? Because my 93 4g63 na has what you listed as 6-bolt. Unless the previous owners changed it but even then all the guides I have looked at says to turn the pulley clockwise when tightening the belt. The previous owners tried "repairing" the block that it had in it very poorly, maybe tomorrow ill do a build update or something showing it, so who knows what else they could of done to it.

Everything works on it so far though. All the information however I can find like on extremePSI, they list the 7-bolt bracket you have shown as 95-99 and they dont show one for the 1g at all. I can see how this all gets confusing though.
 
I have 1ga and 1gb cars and the bottom tensioner doesnt fit any of them. My cars are 90s and a 92.
 
Late 92 model? I take it that it's a 6-bolt too so early 92 most likely. My 93 model 7-bolt has the top tensioner assembly as well but I have no clue if the bottom one would fit. I would think the hump would be there for a reason, front case clearance on a 2g?

Hopefully the OP gets his timing bent sorted out though. I was just thinking either the people seen some of these other guides out there or they didn't have enough room to get their hands in there to spin it counter clockwise so they spun it clockwise, the belt got tight and they tightened the bolt and left it at that. Or it's been decked and seen you should spin it clockwise like others have said which I also had no idea about.
 
It didn't work on my 6 bolt motors. There was an obvious problem. I have a short block on the stand, let me see if I can pull the tensioner off (its a 90) and put the other arm on and get us all a picture.
 
Yeah, the question however is does it work on the 1g 7-bolt. I have my old block here, I however dont have one of those lower brackets to check it. I would have to put the old front case on there, or at least mock it up, and the old water pump to find out if I had one of the tensioner brackets to check.

I dont know why they would change that bracket on the 1g 7-bolts though. Car companies do some weird stuff sometimes though so who knows.

My old block is trash anyways because previous owners of it did some stupid stuff to it, but the front of the block could still be mocked up to compare pictures at the very least even if I didnt have the bottom tensioner bracket you have.
 
Here we go all......6 bolt short block with the correct tensioner and the "other" tensioner, which I assume is from a 7 bolt.
Notice the tip of the arm is way to long for the HT to contact it correctly.
I also assume that a 7 bolt oil pump (front case) orients the tensioner in a different location slightly.
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Mine, if I remember correctly looks exactly like how the tensioner arm sits in your first picture. The 7-bolt 1g front case/oil pump housing is different between the 6-bolt and 2g 7-bolt so is the hydraulic tensioner. The timing mark for the crank shaft is also different and points towards the hydraulic tensioner.

Ill go out and make a mock up of the 1g 7-bolt front. It wont have everything shown on your short block like the bracket mounted and the engine mount bracket, but it will show the front case water pump and hydraulic tentioner if I can find it all.

Im thinking its a 1g vs 2g thing more and more now though. I didnt get a picture of all of that when I rebuilt my engine though, now I wish I would have LOL.
 
I take WAY too many pictures LOL.
But they are worth 1000 words sometimes by their explanations.
If the front case orientation for the tensioner is the same, then I would deduct that it uses the shorter arm. I still don't have the answer for when the change to set the pulley in the 5 - 6 o'clock position and why tho.
 
I have some pictures now just showing a mock up of the water pump, front case/oil pump housing and hydraulic tensioner. If you look at it where the tensioner bolts up and the i guess where the push rod comes out, I dont know what else you would call it, where you are able to stick the pin in to lock it down while you tighten the belt, but you can see that it comes out right above the very most bottom of the water pump, and so does your 6-bolt engine.

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I dont know if it really means much of anything though. But you can see its a different front case, different hydraulic tensioner completely, the timing mark is the little line under the 2 bolts on the right side of the tensioner and that bottom bolt on the tensioner is for the timing cover to bolt to.

All that stuff is just trash, block is toast, not because it blew a rod or spun bearings but because of something entirely different that ill post on my build thread along with some pics of the rebuilt engine. Rather keep this timing related at least though I already derailed it so sorry about that.
 
I bet the 7s are "aimed" at a slightly different spot but a 2g picture would clear the air.
1g 7 bolt use the same tensioner as a 2g?
 
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