dirtyTurbo

Is it possible? Has anybody ever done it? It would save me many hours of sleep in the near future as I'm too poor for the tensioning tool.

thanks! Back to wrenching

royalschwarz

Yes it is possible and a few people have done it. I have owned both early and late setups and I prefer the early. Really, all the tensioner does is provide a starting point to get the belt to the proper tension. It's rarely dead on and shouldn't be trusted as the only tension gauge. Then again, I always tensioned by feel so used no 'tool' except my fingers to get the proper tension.

Read this thread to see if it's really worth the trouble of installing one...
https://rennlist.com/forums/924-931-...and-conns.html

ArcticSteve

Nothing great about the spring tensioner, although I read alot of fearful things about the tensioner "stud" on the early units.

dirtyTurbo

It seems nobody likes the spring tensioners, but I feel like they know a lot more than I do. But there are a lot of people running the "midas touch," so I guess I'll take my chances

MM951

I also prefer the early tensioner setup - the belts aren't black magic, you can get away without using the 9201 tool.

apierce918

I had an early, my dad has a late.. We had to take the tensioner off to install the belts, but I liked that just fine. was more confident with that than with my touch and cricket tool I used for mine.

dirtyTurbo

It's all tensioned up. I feel better than I thought I would, but I'm still going to check it as often as I can

M758

I have been hand tensioning belts for 10+ years on street cars and race engine builds. The belts these days are pretty good and despite the rumors "close enough" actually works. Do check the belts at 1000 miles. Well worth the time as it is common for to stretch a bit when new. Also remember to turn the engine through 180 deg to ensure any slack is evenly distributed around the belt. This can shift timming of both the main belt and balance belt if you are not careful.

apierce918

+1, I learned the hard way to turn the engine by hand after thinking you have it right. Went too fast once and didnt double check because i "knew" it was right... belt must have been nubby-to-nubby on the crank gear and 4 exhaust valves later and head work... I was running again, I checked that time.