gtroth

Hello, all.

This morning I pulled the cam cover off my '88 944S to replace the chain tensioner, and when I push down on the chain to compress the tensioner for removal, the tensioner will not budge. I have loosend the hollow bolt on the tensioner side of the J-tube (oil pressure keeping it up?), but still it won't move. Any ideas?

John Anderson

THats normal, it would not be a good thing if it moved easily. To change those out, I have made a little wire clip, like a horse shoe bend, I push down on the tensioner, enough to line up the holes on the pad and the mount, then insert the wire clip, this makes it easy to pull out. If for some reason your tensioner is stuck, then you will have to remove it the hard way. To make sure you don't damage anything you should slacken the chain. To do this, you remove the drivers side cam (the one withought the pully), remember to stagger the bearing bridges as you remove them to keep the pressure even on trhe cam. Now you should have a slack chain and you can remove the tensioner. When puting the cam back in, rotate the motor until the measure point on the installed cam is facing up, now install the other cam, with a 113mm space between its measure point and the installed cam. Just post back if you need any help.

Take Care!

gtroth

Hey, thanks. It's stuck. When I push down on the chain, it's as solid as a rock. I don't suppose there's a way to un-stuck it?

And I'm not sure I am up to the hard way. Any risk driving while stuck until I get it to the shop? The chain is tight. Also, the pads show very little wear (car has 83K miles) and no cracks, so I would be tempted to wait for a while if the stuck condition is safe. What do you think?

SoCal Driver

If you don't replace it now you will wish you had in 5,000 miles.

gtroth

OK- I never did unstick the old tensioner, but I did get it out. I took out the J-tube, removed the tensioner mounting bolts, and slid the tensioner toward rear of car. Not too hard, but I was extemely lucky that the pads did not have deep grooves in them, or this wouldn't have worked. Once out, I could compress the tensioner some, but nowhere near enough to have locked it down with the retainer pins/holes. So something evidently went wrong with this tensioner. Got my new tensioner in and am good to go.

Thanks,

Tom