Iron or alloy timing belt spring tensioner?

[Tom]

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You sure that magnet sticks to the cast body and not just the hardware and spring?

[Tom]

The new block does come with the 3 spring tensioner studs. Of course it doesn't come with anything in the big hole for the old eccentric stud, so that's what I was writing about in my follow up post. i was getting frustrated not being able to find the dimensions of the bolt that replaced the old stud in 1987 and later engines.IMG-20260305-WA0000.jpeg

Looks like a nice block though.

[Oringojin]

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You sure that magnet sticks to the cast body and not just the hardware and spring?

Yep, the arm and the mounting bracket are both painted cast iron. On my other one it's starting to rust in one spot. I think the alloy one was originally a 951 part, and it superceded the iron part for all 944's, like the clutch and the head gasket.

these also weigh about twice as much as the alloy one.

[Oringojin]

For the life of me I have no idea how those threads get stripped. Makes no sense to me. Only thing I can guess is that people are wildly over tensioning the pivot nut -- but even that seems unlikely

I was thinking that during belt replacement, when loosening the nut on the pivot shaft, the whole stud was accidentally backed out with the nylock nut, and when the retaining bolt for the spring was loosened, the force of the spring just pushed the pivot stud over and ripped out the first few threads.

[Tom]

For the life of me I have no idea how those threads get stripped. Makes no sense to me. Only thing I can guess is that people are wildly over tensioning the pivot nut -- but even that seems unlikely

I was thinking that during belt replacement, when loosening the nut on the pivot shaft, the whole stud was accidentally backed out with the nylock nut, and when the retaining bolt for the spring was loosened, the force of the spring just pushed the pivot stud over and ripped out the first few threads.

Sounds possible... and/or people don't realize it came loose and it remains pulled to the side in use, grinding away at the threads as the engine vibrate/runs...