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Stripped Timing Belt Tensioner Mounting Bolt Hole

34K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  upnorthguy 
#1 ·
In the process of putting the EJ252 back together after replacing head gaskets, I've run into a major snag.

It turns out that when I pulled the TB tensioner to get at the heads, I noticed there were two washers behind the TB tensioner bolt head. I thought it was pretty odd in an automotive application and didn't think twice about it and continued my work.

As I was putting the whole mess back together, I started putting back the sprockets and idlers and got to the tensioner. As I was trying to torque back to 29lb-ft, I noticed my torque wrench spinning. Weird, I thought...until I noticed my regular ratcheting wrench was also spinning!
:surprise:

What appears to have happened is my wife's horrendously incompetent previous mechanic appears to have stripped that bolt hole in the block due to overtorquing and/or crossthreading when he replaced the timing belt the last time it was worked on, and he put an additional washer behind the head to get the bolt in a zone in the block where the bolt threads could grab. The bolt seems to spin more freely - not completely so, but fairly freely - when it gets to full depth I also noticed that the bolt has side-to-side play of about 1/16". The former mechanic is the same idiot that required me to use a 2' long breaker bar on the oil drain plug due to overtorquing, so I suspect that this is what he did here especially since the block is aluminum and not steel like the drain pan.

Obviously, the tensioner won't work correctly unless it's secured to the block without play and with sufficient torque to withstand the forces of the belt motion and tension. I really would be heartbroken if this was it for all my hard work and I can't take the car back to the ******* who worked on it last time because I live 3000 miles across country.

Anyone have any suggestions or options to help me out here? Am I truly screwed? Should I try stacking more washers to get this into a zone or use non-perm Loctite or something to that effect? Is there any reasonable way to rethread the hole? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
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#4 ·
The tensioner bolt actually screws into a bracket that is mounted on the block and not to the block itself. Said bracket is easily replaced. See parts blow-up in the link below.

13156AA052 BRACKET COMPLETE-TENSIONER $35.27

CAMSHAFT & TIMING BELT. TIMING BELT.. Fits: 2000 Subaru Legacy 2.5L AT 4WD | Subaru Parts Online
Dang I hadn't thought about this. It's just three bolts holding that tensioner bracket to the block. I'll go get one from the dealer.

Zedhead - thanks for the heads-up on this as well. If worse comes to worse I can drill out the bracket hole and put the insert in.

Thanks to both you guys for your help!
 
#6 ·
I will second the suggestion that the helicoil insert is an excellent solution, not a 'mickey mouse' fix. It will be as strong or stronger than the original threads.

But just replace the bracket and save the helicoil for the idler that you cross thread trying to get the belt back on :) (I say that jokingly but I almost did that!)
 
#10 ·
Another fix I did on mine until I came up with a replacement bracket was to use a longer bolt. I was able to fit another 10 or 20 mm of bolt in there (e.g. I used a 40mm instead of a 30mm or something similar). I was then able to torque the bolt down to the correct value. Probably not the best long-term solution, but it bought me a few days until I could get the part.

(Note: I have a 95, though, and my EJ22 is non-interference so a failure would be less of a problem compared to someone with a newer interference engine if the bolt came loose while driving.)
 
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