Prior to doing my cambelt change I looked through some of the resources available, for which I'm very grateful and saw there wasn't much on the old-style spring-loaded tensioner, so thought I'd put some pics up in case it helps other people.
I bought the SKF tensioner rebuild kit from PNM.
It contains:
New earth strap
New inner & outer springs
What I'm assuming are two bushes in case your hinge pin is the "bushed" variant (mine isn't) EDIT - On reviewing the photos I
m pretty sure mine is and I missed it. Oh well, it's keeping the old ones in now, and it all moves freely. Silly boy.
2 new white plastic washers
1 new plunger
1 new bearing
I took the alternator off (unbolted and moved to the side, kept the wires on) to get access.
At this time I removed the 24mm (I think) locknut with a long socket on a rattle gun then unscrewed the plunger holder after counting the exposed threads from the end to the back of the locknut (5.5 on mine)
This will spring out, so be careful.
Then you can remove the tensioner itself, 1 nut, 1 bolt, be aware of washers.
On the image above you can see what it looks like with the springs and cup/locknut removed on the left.
The bearing carrier portion is two halves held together by 2 bolts, 1 that holds the earth strap on, 1 through the bearing itself. In this image you can see the bottom of the plunger which pushes on a "heel" in the bearing holding part, causing it to pivot against the belt.
Any concerns I had about needing to have a press to push bearings in vanished. they literally just lift apart. In the middle of the assembly you can see the white plastic washer, these are replaced as part of the kit. But when you do, make sure to lube up the pivot as it can get sticky, which doesn't help operation!
I replaced the earth wire, the bearing and springs. My new plunger didn't seem to fit as well as the old one, so I cleaned and re-greased it and put it back in. I note there's also a lube channel from the outside to the plunger bore so I'll probably spray some PTFE lubrication down it from time to time.
I mounted it to the car before screwing down the spring cap, which was a mistake as it proved impossible to do in-situ so I took it off again, screwed it down a couple of threads, making sure the plunger didn't fire all the way out, then put the whole lot in a vice to squish it down and use cable ties around the body as spring compressors. Then once fitted it to the car (again) I snipped them off. Even so, it was an absolute bastard to fit.
Last thing, I screwed the threaded cup down to approx where it was before* to add the preload to the springs and added the locknut.
* 5.5 threads from the end of the cup to the back of the locknut, once the locknut was fitted, then backed off half a turn in case it had been adjusted "in" in the past to allow for spring compression set.
Ready to go back in the first time - before I re-fitted the spring cap on the bench like a sensible person.
Tensioner in the vice. This is actually as I was trying to remove the earth strap/carrier pinch bolt. But when it comes to compressing it you turn it 90 degrees. You'll figure it out
Hope someone finds this useful one day.
Dan
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