nocomment

I have had the misfortune of my tensioner breaking at the eyelet 400 miles from home, although i just removed the broken threads from the body and then butted it up against the eyelet stub and used the one good eyelet and threads to tension it. Held for 400 miles and is still holding. Cause was the rear mounting bolt that had loosened up slightly. Now I would like to replace the eyelets with heim joints or a pre-made tensioner with heim joints off of something else, but I need to know they eyelet ID, the eyelet thread and length, and the length of the tensioner eyelet to eyelet non-extended. I can measure this myself but if anybody has this information on hand it would save me from taking a trip to the store to figure out the threads as well as jacking the car up and risk messing with my fragile tension setup.

Spring44

I don't know what the diameter is without going to my shop, but it is probably in the M10 x 1.5 range.

The tensioner is basically a turnbuckle, so one side has left handed threads and the other side is right handed thread. Which side of yours is broken? Left-hand threaded rods may be harder to find without buying a whole new tensioner. When one of my tensioners broke, I was able to weld it back together since it broke where the threads stopped on the rod. This may not work for you, depending on where your break is.

Heim joints with nylon bearings might tend to lose their tension over time through creep in the nylon. All-metal heim joints should work ok.

nocomment

I was going to go with all metal, although i wonder if nylon would help soak up some vibrations? I don't recall if it was the right hand or left hand threads, and I know its been flipped at least once. Mcmaster Carr does have both left and right hand threads available though. I have welded welded mine back together several times from a previous ac mounting issues and am running out of threads(it always breaks on the threads not on my welds). I also don't have my welder here at college.

nocomment

Went into an auto parts store hoping to get the thread type for the eyelet but unfortunately The broken off piece I had was the left hand threads. Looks like an m10-1.25 though. I was doing some more digging and for some reason I didn't find this when I was searching for a direct part replacement but this looks like it had heim joints and is only slightly more expensive then the joints only from mcmaster carr: https://www.paragon-products.com/A-C...la.944.030.htm

I sent an email to paragon and they confirmed they were indeed spherical joints. I ordered one so that solves that. When I get the old one off I'll measure it and post the specs as an update for future reference, as it may help someone else and it wouldn't hurt to carry spares.

I also found another possible cause for my breaking. I never noticed before since it was missing since I got the car but I don't have the spacer that goes on the engine block. I only noticed I was missing it when I was looking at pictures of other 944 engines.

snb13

I believe 944online has an aftermarket solution.

nocomment

They do, but no heim joints: https://944online.com/index.php/944o...ent-strut.html

V2Rocket

there's no need for heim joints as those bolts don't see any twisting or deflection while "in service".
loosen the tensioner end bolts, loosen the compressor hanger bolts, adjust tension, re-tighten bolts.

ryan@usaimage.com

I am pretty sure the originals are not Heim joints.

nocomment

I believe my tensioner was under more stress than usual from my missing spacer, but you're right, I don't want it so much for the movement it allows but for the extra strength around the "eyelet" area where it usually breaks. Granted it'll probably be unnecessary with the spacer, but extra strength won't hurt, and It was also cheaper than an OE replacement.

nocomment

That is correct.