rixter

ok... tb light went off, last nite my buddy and I retensioned it,
light went off today just idling in the garage, I pulled everything back off and double checked it, tension is dead on
I did find that the wire that goes thru the cover was pretty smashed against the housing...
anyone else have this problem?
I'm thinking it's either that wire is shorted out or the tensioner part is corroded or not holding in place for some reason
anyone think of anything else it might be, I'm expected to drive this car Sat to an event and I really don't have time to tear everything down and get parts in to replace the sensor by then
suggestions?

worf928

I think you're on the right track. The simplest explanation is that you've got an intermittent connection either at the center cover or at the roller carrier.

It's a pretty simple circuit from the top of the roller carrier; IIRC when the belt is loose there's no continuity (ground) through the circuit. You could probably hook up a temporary second connection with a spade connector for the post on the carrier, run the wire through the hole in the center cover and some kind of temporary connection to the harness? This assumes that the copper from the spade on top of the carrier to the tensioner's piston isn't foobar'd...

Tony's got a nice diagram or three of the circuit on his site.

martin D

I had a similar problem , turned out to be the plastic insulator ,
the green part on Tonys diagram which is available separately.
Tensioner diagram

Martin

Podguy

There are a couple of things to check besides the light. First measure the width of the belt against a good one. If it is getting thinner then it is probably a worn bushing on the tension arm causing the belt to rub against the damper and get weak.

The second thing to check is the oil in the tensioner. Make sure it is full and not leaking from the boot.

Next put a light on the tension wire and back off the tension with the gauge in place. There should be a place where your test light comes on. Move through that a turn or so and make note of the number on the guage. Then adjust the belt and make note of where the light goes off. If it goes off somewhere near 5.0 then the way the system is set up is off a bit. The light should go off somewhere between 4.0 and 4.5.

I found on a 90 after testing everything, I could not get the light to stay off unless the gauge was set to 5.5. Not sure why, but the car is still running 15k later although it is probably due for another check.

Mike Frye

Rixter,

I recently had a similar problem with mine, it turned out that I had originally tensioned it in the middle of the Kempf tool 'acceptable' range, and for the 32v cars it's apparently got to be at the top part to match the Porsche guage. It had been about 250 miles since my tb/wp and apparently it stretched just that little bit and triggered the system.

The general consensus on here was that as long as the belt is good and the tension is good when you check it, you're safe to drive it, since you can be sure it's in the indicator circuit somewhere, and not with the belt itself.

BTW- Is the lift in yet?