RE: hydraulic t-belt tensioner rebuild

["H. Martin de'Campo" <humanatek@xxxxxxxxx>]

Joe Elliott wrote regarding belt detensioners: 


"the Zat detensioner has no accomodation for 
the thermal expansion of an all-aluminum engine.  Don't other manufacturers just use a spring?  It seems to me that that would work beautifully, because the engine doesn't expand enough for delta x in 
Hooke's law to be appreciable, so the force exerted by the spring would remain rougly constant as the motor expanded, and consequently belt tension would remain roughly constant.  At least a lot more 
constant than with the scary (albeit reliable, thus far, knock wood) Zat device.  And a big ol' spring probably won't leak or break either.  
Joe Elliott
'82 GTV-6"

JOE:  YOU'RE BEATING A DEAD HORSE, YOUR ZAT DETENSIONER IS THE BEST AND MOST RELIABLE RESOURCE TO RESOLVE THE DETENSIONER ISSUE.  MOREOVER, AS MANY OF US KNOW THERE IS A BAD BATCH OF SPRINGS IN MANY OF THE DETENSIONERS BEING SOLD BY MANY OF THE ALFA PARTS SHOPS...  I'VE DONE SOME CALCULATIONS ON THE MOTORS THERMAL EXPANSION AND THE TRUTH IS ALFA NEVER NEEDED TO PLACE AN "ADJUSTABLE" DETENSIONER BECAUSE THE ALLOY EXPANSION IS THE EQUIVALENT OF THE THICKNESS OF A SHEET OF PAPER!  IN TODAY'S MODERN ALL ALLOY BLOCKED MOTORS LIKE HONDA, ACURA, NISSAN, FORD, ETC... NO ONE USES A DETENSIONER ANYMORE DESPITE THEY'RE ALL ALUMINUM BLOCK.  WHY?  BECAUSE MOST MANUFACTURERS NOW KNOW THAT THE SO-CALLED THERMAL EXPANSION IS NEAR NIL OR NEGLIGIBLE AT BEST.  SO... MY RECOMMENDATION IS WORRY ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE, B/C IF YOU'RE USING THE ZAT DEVICE YOU'LL BE FINE.  THAT'S WHAT I'M USING IN MY CALLAWAY. AND THAT'S WHAT MODERN MANUFACTURERS ARE DOING TODAY...

My 2 cents.

H. Martin de'Campo



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