Hi folks. I'm knee deep in a water pump replacement on a 96 GXE with 212k. Got the pump and tensioner out, so far so good.

I'm confused about the tensioner however. The car exhibited zero TC noises before the repair, so I have to assume it's still good.

When I went to compress the piston to pin it in the retracted position (for reinstallation later) my screwdriver slipped while applying pressure (that mother was TIGHT) and then the piston shot out of the bore and the whole works spilled out onto my garage floor. I reassembled it best I could.

There's this little plastic peice with two dissimilar ends that appears to go inside the spring. I don't know if the flat side goes up (toward piston) or the side with the hole.

I tried it both ways, but when I compress the piston it doesn't hold pressure and the piston slides down easily into the bore, very much unlike when I first took it out of the car. I have no idea what happened, but as I depress the piston down into the bore, I see air bubbles spurting out one side of the tensioner. If none of this makes sense I can upload a video.

Is my tensioner trashed? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

See this:
https://maxima.org/forums/4th-genera...teup-pics.html

 

That was the how-to I used, along with a nice YouTube video by some fellow to go about replacing the water pump.

Nothing in either addresses my question about the timing chain tensioner pieces coming apart, and how or if I can put it back together (see my comment about loss of compression [air spitting out the other side] when trying to compress the piston after reassembly) and the correct orientation for the plastic piece.

 

Prolly just pick up a new one and be done. For a 40 dollar bill its good peace of mind in my book. At 212K, that one has served you well.

.02

 

I did this job before, but cannot remember how I put it back together, but chain tensioner is pressurized by oil not by spring, if you look at the side of the tensioner body, there is a oil port there on mounting side of the tensioner body and when car starts, oil goes into the port to push piston out, keeping tension on the chain guide. That being said, the spring should still provide enough pressure to keep chain guide tensioned so first few seconds after engine starts, you don't hear chain slapping sound before oil being pumped up.

Not sure about the plastic piece you mentioned, are you sure you didn't miss anything when the piston shot out? There might be an o-ring somewhere. I know there are 2 different types of tensioners, old and new, if you have plastic piece, it might be the new type, attach a picture of it.



Left is old type and right is new type: