I am working on replacing my waterpump, and currently I am at the stage where you need to put some slack in the timing chain. So far (with exception to close quarters) everything has gone fairly smooth , but I am having trouble getting some slack. I believe that I have released the plunger, but cannot seem to push the plunger back in. I took a picture (best i could)... any thoughts?

 

sorry about the obnoxiously large photo

 

Rotate the crankshaft about 20 deg. backasswards.

 

ok, i will try that, the service manual said to do that AFTER you pushed in the tensioner...

 

well i just took the tensioner out completely, I should be able to replace the waterpump just fine now, but even with the tensioner out, i cannot get it to compress... bad tensioner?

 

I can't see your photos, but I doubt that the tensioner has an issue. Have you got the plunger stopper lever in the correct position? If you don't have it in the plunger "released" position you won't be able to push the plunger in. It'll only go in so far. There is a better drawing of this in the EM (Timing Chain) section of the FSM.