Timing belt tensioner pulley does not "pivot nice & freely"

I would install the bracket and pulley on the new oil pump and torque it down so I would know before I went through all of that trouble to install the new pump

if I went the route of milling the bracket down, assuming it is an extremely small difference, I would be peeling back that cover to inspect it regularly

 

I did a quick check and it appears the labor is about three times as much for the oil pump as it is for the timing belt if that is any indication.

major job, but doable. I saw at least three other people on the forum that have done it.

 

and I would trust the big sert option, as it would be confirmed by that bracket pivoting freely

The bad part about that option is going through all that trouble and still having the same problem

 

I'd rather do a Timesert or Bigsert frankly, than doing the oil pump. It's the most cost-effective way. No offense to Helicoils. Someone that specializes in Timeserts could probably advise you on the best course of action, knowing this is for a pulley spindle, essentially.

 

yes, I looked into it a good bit and they have tech-support there to tell you what type and options, etc. etc.
And if it comes down to that or an oil pump, I'm definitely doing the time cert first. And that will work, assuming it is installed properly





Just for shits and giggles I installed the bracket with the thinnest washer I could get with a hole diameter that would accept the bolt. it pivoted freely and I could not get the bracket to slide back-and-forth

 

I'd be tempted to look up the part for our '06, and get it from the dealer. I'm wondering if they did change the washer along with the part redesign? Or something else ...

 

I tried the old bracket with the old bolt and washer with the same result

 

I'm sure this would be met with immeasurable skepticism, but it is so very tempting to get the thinnest washer I could find with similar diameter to the Toyota spacer/washer and put between the oil pump/engine side and the existing washer as when I just tested that

 

This is indeed tempting, but its not easy to get back in here to inspect or adjust if needed. So if this is temporary until you can source the new oil pump cover, then I would probably do the same. The thin washer is unlikely to have the pulley out of line. Secondary concern is if the bolt is at any angle other than perpendicular to the block, is it possible for the belt to walk off the pulley?

 

I would peel back the passenger side cam pulley/gear tb cover to inspect. It has no flange on the passenger side and it goes there immediately after the tensioner pulley. So that should be a good indication if it is walking

thinking this through

Given the direction of the engine rotation, it would go from this tensioner pulley to the passenger side cam pulley which has no flange

then it would go to the water pump and the driver side cam pulley that both have a flange to keep it in line

then it goes around the other idler pulley and the crank neither of which have a flange

that seems like it would be enough to keep it from walking But it would be even better if the pulleys immediately before and after the tensioner pulley both had flanges

 

From the tensioner pulley to the passenger cam pulley/gear without a flange



To the water pump pulley with a flange


To the driver side cam pulley/gear with a flange

 

“Keep it from walking” doesn’t mean “won’t get shredded by rubbing the shoulders”. Not trying to be captain obvious or anything. Just an observation.

 

Would have to inspect that at the top passenger side timing belt cover as well

I would be tempted to get another passenger side TB cover from the local Toyota truck junkyard. Drill 2 inspection holes in the cover - one to inspect the edge of the belt and one to check the belt position relative to the passenger side pulley. Then cover with duct tape

Would allow for quick inspection until I do the time cert. if no walking, I would not be in a huge rush just sometime next year. If there is walking, it would be very apparent at the passenger side cam gear/pulley

this would allow me to finish testing the ECU mods, headers, etc and resolve the front passenger side suspension squeak at very low speeds after I let my shop deal with adjusting the coil overs

 

Could always chuck a nut in a vise and test the bolt/washer combo with the tensioner to see if it's free.

 

I know you were dying to see my TB tensioner

 

Toyota loves all things phallic.

 

That's what I would do. But use a stainless steel washer, it will be about half the thickness of that washer in the pic. What size does it need to be? (What's the size of the threaded portion and the sleeve portion of the pivot bolt?)

 

Stainless and aluminum together? Actually not sure what the oil pump cover is made of. Assuming aluminum.

 

Excellent point. True, it's not ideal. But I think we're well beyond ideal. I'd put a light coat of grease on the washer and call it good.

 

Well, I was all ready to go the washer route and do the timesert later if needed. Even had the timing belt back on and was ready to torque down the harmonic balancer/damper.

But I had a hard time going to sleep last night. All I could think about was how would I feel when I want to test out those headers or pass someone on the interstate getting it up to 4000 rpm's or better. That timing belt tensioner pulley is roughly the size of the crank gear so it would be spinning roughly 67 times per second at 4000 RPMs. Would I trust it? Hell no

then I also remembered this:



At first, I thought it was due to that sleeve/spacer getting between one of the gears or pulleys. But I knew I had to confirm if that bolt for the bracket was perpendicular and caused It to walk on the passenger side gear/pulley which is next on route after the tensioner pulley

Granted the timing belt would take several crank/pulley revolutions to make one complete circle, but still. If that timing belt tensioner was not exactly perpendicular and the belt ever got up on one of the flanges for the water pump or driver's side cam gear/pulley at those RPMs, it's toast

so I just took the tb off and got a bolt and cut off the head and tried to test to see if it was perpendicular. The space is tight and you don't have Much space at the base to test. But still, this is what I saw:



Now that tool I used to measure Was not touching the unthreaded portion at the base. It was up against the threads. So there is a small gap at the base, but there is no doubt that gap gets larger at the opposite end.

And coincidentally at that angle, it perfectly explains why the belt had walked at the passenger side timing belt gear or pulley


So as usual, I'm very long-winded to say, I'll be in touch with the time sert people today

 

One more concern even with a time sert there's not much room at the base of that bolt for a guide.

Since you can't use a table drill it is going to be difficult to ensure the time sert is perpendicular. Hopefully the time sert people will be able to offer the best possible solution


EDIT: well, here you go. This is their guide and it will work in the tight area. The bolt for the tensioner bracket is 10x1.25



and before I hear from PHM saying my hands are made for radio, those are not my hands

 

One more gripe. For such a critical piece, it would've been nice if there was a threaded steel sleeve from the factory instead of the bolt being held by aluminum threads

 

Yes, it is aluminum

 

I'm having this same issue on a 3.4 in a Tacoma that has the same type of tensioner setup. The bolt was not stripped, but I cannot get the tensioner to pivot with any torque on the new or old bracket, did you ever figure out the issue?

 

are you putting the spacer on? I assume it's got a spacer like the 4.7.


Mine was because the bolt hole was stripped and it got tapped to try to repair with a Heli coil, but in that process the hole was not bored out perfectly perpendicular


That clearance is very tight and it doesn't take much to bind

 

Yes I'm using the old bolt with the spacer, tried the old bracket and still wont pivot. The bolt seems short and with torque it pinches the bracket.

 

When I pushed the bolt through the bracket, I could feel with my fingernail to see that it was ever so slightly longer than the bracket. Yours should be the same and I believe you've tried both the old and the new so I doubt this is an issue

if you push on the bracket slightly at different angles while torqued down, does the bracket then start to move freely? There's not much clearance so it doesn't take very much to cause it to bind. This was the case with mine, but my hole had been tapped out and wasn't perfectly perpendicular. Not sure how yours would've ended up that way.

you could put a very, very thin spacer between the existing spacer and the oil pump housing and it will probably move freely

 

I ended up taking a measurement with my calipers of the width of the bracket, and the width of the gap between the spacer and bolt head and I had .030 difference. I ended up just milling about .015 off of each side of the bracket and torquing and it pivots nice and freely, but didn't have any slop or play. I think it will be fine. Before I could tell the bolt shoulder did not go all the way through the bracket so it was in fact pinching it. Thank you for your responses.