Tensioner pulley rebuild.

[John Schmidt]

I have three spare tensioners in my stash, two of which are noisy(taken off my GL1200 project) when spun 2-3" from my ear. One is particularly noisy so figured I'd try my luck at a rebuild of both. Found a couple replacement pulleys on Ebay for a bit over $7/ea. with free shipping so decided to invest a few $$'s. In the near future I want to replace the belts, more due to age(20 yrs.) than wear signs, so thought I'd see about rebuilding the pulleys. The replacement pulleys run $73.30 ea. on Procaliber.com so I figured I could afford to invest a few bucks on a possible rebuild. I'll decide about the mounting bolt when I get them in hand, will take some time but it's not as though I'm going anywhere soon. Those of you that have done this I'd like to hear your experience....good or bad.

Leave it to me to start messing with the bike about the time cooler weather is starting to show up here.

[flash2002]

I rebuilt my tensioners with Gates T42015 idler pulley. I cut off the old one, welded a bolt to the plate lock washer and nut voila like new and better. These idlers are cheap and well made and should last a long time, a lot better then these cheap made in Japan pulleys.

[Valker]

I rebuilt my tensioners with Gates T42015 idler pulley. I cut off the old one, welded a bolt to the plate lock washer and nut voila like new and better. These idlers are cheap and well made and should last a long time, a lot better then these cheap made in Japan pulleys.

Is this procedure shown anywhere?

[indybobm]

I found this some time back. A lot of good information and alternatative ways of rebuilding the pulleys.

http://www.sdb-e.com/TENSIONER/TENSIONER-REBUILD-JCS.pdf

[98valk]

I rebuilt my tensioners with Gates T42015 idler pulley. I cut off the old one, welded a bolt to the plate lock washer and nut voila like new and better. These idlers are cheap and well made and should last a long time, a lot better then these cheap made in Japan pulleys.

Is this procedure shown anywhere?

http://www.valkyrieforum.com/bbs/index.php/topic,79209.0.html

[Jess from VA]

Big BF rebuilt them on both my bikes. 

I watched (for awhile) and it appeared he had done a thousand of them.

He is taking some time off to get better, but he might have some good information.

[John Schmidt]

I'm wondering what bolts can be used, preferably without having to weld one in place. I was looking at wheel studs, guess I'll wait until the new ones get here then take the parts to a good hardware store and experiment.

[SCain]

I followed this method with the flat head allen bolt, worked great and required no welding etc.

Rebuild them for around $20 each verses $90 each OEM. Google search "Rebuilding the Timing Belt Tensioner" or Gates T42015 pulley. It should bring up an article written for Goldwings. I rebuilt one for a total $18. 70. 5,000 miles and no problems yet. If your OEMs spin really free you should consider this. This rebuild is not hard to do.

[bentwrench]

I did the dorman 610-308 wheel stud welded in place.now I can swap out the pulley with the bracket staying on the motor,with a nice locknut it'll never loosen up.

[indybobm]

John, the link to the Goldwing article I posted earlier on rebuilding tensioners gives you many options on pulleys, bolts,etc. It gives you many options to select from depending on how you want to do it.

[John Schmidt]

John, the link to the Goldwing article I posted earlier on rebuilding tensioners gives you many options on pulleys, bolts,etc. It gives you many options to select from depending on how you want to do it.

I saved it and plan to print it out for keeping in my 3-ring reference book I keep for the Valk. The 3-ring is the 3" variety, and after all these years is flat when laying down. 

[John Schmidt]

OK, started putzing with one tensioner this afternoon, drilled and drilled and drilled some more. A few good licks with a hammer and punch and only got about 1/8" movement. More drilling, more hammering, all to no avail. Just wondering, is it possible to cut that stud in the small slot between the pulley and mounting bracket? Don't know how hard that stud might be but if I can get my sawsall blade in there seems it ought to work. Gonna watch some college mayhem for a while then give it another try. Got the new pulleys in, just ordered the belts(Gates T275) from Rockauto, $31.17 total with shipping as compared to $39.99 ea. from all the local parts stores. Honda is out of sight....$72+ per belt....same belt mfr.

OK, got'em off. Got out my sawsall, cut for a bit, then applied a small chisel in between the bracket and pulley via a rather large hammer. Sucker flew off halfway across the garage so did the second one the same way. That bracket has a rather large hole, at least 3mm larger than the hole in the new pulley. Might look around for a bolt with a small 14mm diameter shoulder for the larger hole and the threaded portion approx. 10mm. It appears the bracket hole is tapered so might be able to find a 10mm allen head with a taper under the head. Time to experiment.

[Brian]

I'm wondering what bolts can be used, preferably without having to weld one in place. I was looking at wheel studs, guess I'll wait until the new ones get here then take the parts to a good hardware store and experiment.

John, drill out the old pulley stud from the backside of the plate. I think I use 1/2" drill bit. The mounting plate is chamfered. I took the plate and pulley to the local hardware store. What I found that fit the large hole was called a plow bolt and it fit the 10mm hole in the pulley base. I then used JB Weld to fill in the area around the bolt and the plate just to remove any slop. I used a lock washer and nut as they were out nylon locknuts. If you Google this Gates pulley it should bring up an article for the Goldwing blog. They give about 6 different ways to rebuild these. I have 10,000 miles on a rebuilt unit with no problems at all. I recommend doing this. 

[John Schmidt]

Yesterday I picked up two different size flat head allen bolts, both with high grade rating for strength. I forget the 7/16" grade off-hand, the 10mm is 10.9...a rather high grade strength. I picked up two of each size sort of as a "just in case" scenario, mainly if I can't decide which size to use. A couple issues bother me using that type of bolt; the beveled underside of the head causes the bolt to not exit the hole squarely in the bracket(the bracket hole is also beveled), thereby causing the pulley to not be square with the bracket once tightened and not square with the belt. The other issue is if I should decide to use the 7/16", the pulley hole needs to be enlarged ever so slightly.  How does one hold the center portion of the pulley while drilling, once the bit is applied the center starts to spin.

I'd actually like to use a high grade 12mm but that also involves slight drilling of the pulley. I'm not too concerned about a regular cap screw/bolt not filling the hole in the bracket. If it moves around prior to tightenig it makes little difference because the pulley will be square with the bracket once tightened, that's because the underside of the cap head is flat, not conical like the underside of the flat head allen bolt.

Maybe I'm barking at shadows, I'm just not ready to slap a "rebuilt" tensioner in place and not have the pulley(s) running parallel to the block. At idle it would run the belt off before you could stop it.

[SCain]

John,
I don't remember having any issues with alignment etc, the Gates pulley had a large enough flat surface that it stayed true to the bracket. The flat head allen bolt held it tight against the bracket. I did use a little red locktite on the bolt, if your original bracket is flat and the pulley is flat against it, all should be good right.
Steve

[John Schmidt]

I'll give it a try, so far have just finger tightened one pulley. Just don't want problems down the road, I feel you're correct re. the pulley pulling up flat against the bracket.

[John Schmidt]

Done with the pulleys, here's the finished product. I used 10mm flat head allen bolts with a lock washer under the nut, 10.9 grade strength, blue loktite, 30lb. torque. I first tried drilling out the center hole for the 7/16" bolts but the center section spun no matter what I tried. I figure these will work fine with the 10mm. Waiting on the new belts, then sometime after Nov. 3 I'll start with pulling the forks. The Florida bunch has a gathering on 11/3 so don't want to take a chance on having the bike down.

[Brian]

  That is exactly what mine looks like. I used a lock washer and some blue loctite. I feel this rebuild is much better than the mother Honda design. You might even notice the engine belt whine will be a lot less now?