old style spring loaded tensioner behavior

[Alan Cottrill]

I've finished timing my cams and installing the tensioners. The tensioners are very stiff. Impossible to compress with my hands. I compressed them in the vice and snapped the special tool over them to install. After I installed the tensioners I installed the safety collars on them. At that point I was very proud of my work and since I still had the dial indicator in place I decided to re check the cam timing with the tensioners in. so I gave the crank a full turn and observed that the lift at lap had changed. I also observed that the safety collar was a good bit closer to the tensioner body (the tensoiner had compressed about 1mm). Then I checked to see how much slack was in the chain and was able to change the lift at lap by .05 mm either way by moving the chain. Since I have no experience with these tensioners I'm wondering if this is acceptable behavior?

edit: these are not the oldest style. these are the ones with the part number that starts with 930.

[john walker's workshop]

it's always a good idea to release the tensioner after first compressing it, to see if it still has no slop. sometimes they draw air from the reservoir under the inner aluminum disc, due to a blown out outer o-ring on the disc. easy to see part of the blown o-ring after removing the outer snap-ring, outer disc and outer spring.

[MBEngineering]

HI John seal No' 8 I think.

[img]
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploads9/S70003131169737377.jpg[/img]

regards mike