Manual Timing Chain Adjuster Initial Cold Setting

I got my manual adjuster in the mail today. It seems very well made, and came with everything necessary.

I saw Kawboy's impressively detailed and knowledgeable procedure on how to do the final adjustment. Is the initial cold adjustment as simple as running the thing in finger-tight and locking it down? If I take off the right cover and slowly turn over the engine while feeling the tension on the adjuster, and make it lightly finger tight at the point where there is maximum slack in the chain, will that do it?

I'm also looking for a "smart lazy-man's" method to use for ongoing maintenance that doesn't involve having to remove any covers.

The '82 has less than 6,000 miles on it.

Richard

These things are actually very difficult to find the sweet spot. It's all so tight you can't feel the 'spot', never mind being able to turn the bolt by hand. I have a manual tensioner installed, but I just did the stock tensioner mod and I will be switching. Anything written about adjusting the manual tensioner never worked for me - I just can't feel that spot because finger-tight locking is impossible! In my case at least.

I removed he head cover and was checking the tension of the chain by hand. Then - by ear when engine running. Chose the least noise point. But overall - I'd do the mod and have the thing adjust itself with the spring.

I have a 3/8 drive "palm handle" that I got several decades ago from JC Whitney (man, I miss them as they were) that I plan to use to increase my torque while still offering useful feel.

Actually, does anybody have a torque-wrench figure they shoot for? I have quite a nice click-type wrench that is calibrated in inch-pounds.

Richard

This would be more for a inch-ounce torque wrench than a inch-pound torque wrench to get in the right range I would think. It's such a light touch and needs to be done on the slack part of the chain, meaning, snug it up and lock it down, then rotate the crank and recheck a few times. All chains have stretch spots in them. The worse scenario with mechanical adjusters is having a loose chain that's flopping around in there wearing out the nylon gear or chewing out the rubber take up tension wheel.

I doubt anyone will come up with a torque value for you and a inch ounce torque wrench would be a "very special tool" and not worth the expense. Inch-pound torque wrench- too big for the job I think.

I wanted to update with what I ended up doing today.

While I had the carbs off, I swapped in the manual adjuster. I would like to say first that I quickly found out that moving the o-ring seal back out of contact improved the "feel" by eliminating the majority of friction in the assembly. All you have to do (BEFORE you install the tensioner) is to turn in the bolt by hand with the lock-nut backed off. This will slide the o-ring clear of the body of the tensioner. Once it's clear, you can gently slide it farther out of the way. Try to avoid cutting the o-ring on the bolt threads. A shot of WD-40 will help.

Once I could feel what I was doing, I turned in the bolt using fingers only. It felt just like you would expect for a system using a silicone/rubber tension roller. That is, no clear "tight point," but just a smooth increase in the effort required to turn in the tensioner bolt. I settled for turning in the bolt until I felt first contact, then just a bit more, perhaps 1/4 turn. I then tightened the locknut. I figure this will give a slight preload on the tension roller, without crushing it so much that it wears out prematurely. I'll recheck the tension after I run the engine in a bit.

Speaking of wear on the tension wheel, does anybody have a gut feel for how many mile/years the roller would be expected to last in the real world? I have no reason to believe the one I've got is not the original, which would put it at 5600 miles and thirty-eight years. I haven't looked in the Service Manual yet.

Richard

The only thing I can say about the stock wheel is that the first year model used a plastic that was brittle and failed prematurely from what I have read. You can inspect it with the valve cover off and its not a huge ordeal unless you need to replace it. Then you'll have to take the head off. Yuck.