[Vwdiesel] Banana Rabbit--It gets worse!!

[mark shepherd]

I certainly wouldn't want to experience the issues you have, Eric.

However, apart from the saving money aspect, which often nods it's head in 
my decisions, although in this case this is a fairly cheap part, I have 
spent my life surrounded with old mechanisms, and clearly inferior modern 
equivalents.  This show s it's face in everything form toilet paper to 
Briggs and Stratton engines.
My 1959 B & S still starts on old dead petroleum.

 In the case of tensioners; I've had 7 Quantums, and I cant remember if I 
ever replaced one. An old FIAT of mine needed one back in the 1980's but I 
think that's it.

I wonder if in the case of VW diesels, apart from always useing the full 
belt covering, could obsessive overtensioning of the tensioner, not only 
lead to premature pump bearing failure, but also to rapid tensioner wear and 
death especially in the less robust replacements?

Mark

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Erik Lane" <eriklane at gmail.com>
To: "vw fans" <Vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 01, 2011 6:35 PM
Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] Banana Rabbit--It gets worse!!


>
> On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 7:16 AM, mark shepherd 
> <mark at shepher.fsnet.co.uk>wrote:
>
>> Never replace a shell bearing, that upon inspection looks pretty well as 
>> it
>> did when it was installed. A complete waste of money and a potential 
>> source
>> of  later trouble.
>>
>> Check the tensioner whilst you are there by spinning it. If a good spin,
>> and
>> no rumble then leave this too...
>>
>>
> I disagree with this one. I used to just check the timing belt tensioner 
> and
> only replace it when it sounded/felt like it had a bad bearing, but one 
> time
> after seeming perfect in every respect it failed ~1-200 miles after
> replacing the belt. That cost me quite a bit in getting the head rebuilt,
> new head gasket, and a lot of time in towing and fixing it. I replace the
> tensioners every single time now. They only cost $16 and take about that
> much worth in time just to replace later if you need to.
>
> Erik
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