Pressure Fed Tensioner Missing a part! Need a replacement.
 

One of the oil fed tensioners in my rebuilt project is missing the little pressure relief (control?) spring, ball and cap. Doesn't appear to be sold separately so unless I can "ignore" this I'm looking for another tensioner...

How critical is this part of the tensioner? Does it control the overall pressure in the piston?

Anyone got a bad tensioner with these bits still good they want to sell? Or how about a used but good tensioner?

Thanks all!

Nope, you can not use it without the nipple, the oil will leak out and the tensioner will collapse. From there it can only end bad.

Read this thread with commentary from Walt Frike:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/porsche-911-technical-forum/574437-why-there-grease-nipple-my-tensioner.html

Yeah, I was afraid of that. Not a lot of "extra" parts in the valvetrain :)

I just replaced both of mine. I have two old extras. You can have one of them for parts, if that will help.

Very generous of you! I'll send a PM and will certainty cover postage plus a suitable adult beverage.

Afterburn 549 helped me out and just asked that I pay it forward, so this is pretty cool. Cheers, Mike

And thanks to Mike's good karma approach to life, I got two tensioners (one apparently bad but I'm not sure which) and a "rebuild kit" for tensioners that I did not know existed. Not sure this is for the oil fed version - any comments?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1375840822.jpg

My home run would be to remove the nipple from the "failed" tensioner and install it on mine that is nipple-less. Not sure how to do that without bending the nipple.