[alfa] RE: Water pumps and mechanical tensioners (long)

[dsedon@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

"AlfaBill.com" <mail@domain.elided> wrote:

>Dug sed he was having issues with his tensioner...
>
>My real income comes from a Subaru / Alfa dealership.... Now, I'm not
>defending the part, but I have personally installed 8-10 of these and the
>shop has done a bunch and never had a failure. I drive my cars without
>regard to the tensioner (redline sometimes) and have not had a failure in
>any of the 3 Milanos and 6 164s I have owned.
>
>Here's some theories:
>
>The most common thing I hear from other installers is, " I don't trust that
>spring so I torque it all the way and tighten it up".  That could be an
>issue. (ugh)
>
>The Alfa tensioner comes with a bulletin for the install. It is CRITICAL
>that the motor be rotated by hand 4 revolutions. This takes up the slack
>and allows you to re-adjust the unit. I've always done this and never had
>an issue on any of the Milanos or 164s I have owned. I saw one that this
>wasn't done with and saw a bouquet of bent valves not long afterwards. The
>belt had jumped BUT the tensioner had not failed. It wasn't tight enough. I
>also don't use the 5 speed gears as a parking brake.
>
>The concerns I've heard on the Zat unit is the lack of compensation for
>expansion. Not sure if this is an issue or not.
====================
i have used the mech'l tensioner on my alfas since ~95...  all three have 'em presently.  i installed the 1st one, my mechanic has installed a total of three for me.  he follows the factory procedure *EXACTLY*.  he has seen a coupla failures, but this is the first failure on one he's done.   the verdict is still out as to whether or not this unit is defective, or whewther it yust skipped timing of its own accord.  i will be dropping by the foto of the failure posted here, on monday, for his perusal.  he sees no break in the spring.   chez-sedon, we all are wery aware of which gear the car should be in when parked, depending on which end of the ehicle is up, so this isn't the issue.  it was parked in neutral in my drive, when the failure occurred...

doug s.


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