G'day
I was releasing tht timing chain tension today and when i tried to take out the bolt, the massive outer bolt came out with it.

After that i pulled out the cam sleeve i think it was called and a spring followed it?

Bad news?

nope thats normal!

yeah it happens,just screw it all back when your finished.

make sure you take the rocker over off when putting it back on to make sure you get the right tension back on it, you might also MIGHT need a little bit of sealant around the big part of the bolt

the main tension is controled by oil presure,you just screw the thing back till it's tight then let the engine do the rest it self,depending on what you are doing theres no need to remove the rocker cover,

DONT JUST SCREW IT BACK IN!

You need to re-assemble the tensioner in it's collapsed position, re-insert it, then re-set the tension once everything is screwed back in. Otherwise the tensioner cam will crack when you tighten it all back up. - this happened to me and took me 2.5hours will needle nose pliers and $70 in a new tensioner to fix.

It was very complicated and I had a gregories manual and a 2nd tensioner to play with untill I got it right.

well i've never had a problem with them,,done it a few times.

dont f**k around with it ,i found out the hard weay and it f**k my engine ,it was so tight it put presure on the aux gear and snapped it so now i need a rebuild

yep ive had that one happen to me

so what does everyone suggest i do with it? put it all back together to the point where im ready to retension the chain, and then get a mechanic to do that bit for me to make sure its done properley?

um yeah id do that to be on the safe side

just replaced mine as it wasnt tensioning at all and makeing all kinds of noises

its simple, just pull the retainer or the large bolt as you called it out. Pull all the tensioner bits out there should be 5 bits in total, the inner stepped sleeve, the outter retaining sleeve, a spring, a lug that goes up in to the spring and a tensioner activator. Once you have it all out then pull the 14mm headed bolt out of the main retainer by holding it in a vice with soft jaws, wind all your bits of tensioner back together untill it clicks in (wind it clockwise) then insert the tensioner back in the hole and turn it untill you can feel that its on the guide properly. Put the retainer back in and then stick a 3mm allen key in to the tensioner through the hole in the retainer. Turn the allen key with a small extension or pliers in an anticlockwise direction untill you feel it click. Sometimes it reqiures you to push slightly on the allen key towards the timing chain cover but dont push too hard or you will disengage the activator from the inner sleeve. When you feel it click, wind in your 14mm bolt and nip it up tight. This will also nip up our outter retainer tight too which saves you mucking around with a set of bent nose pliers trying to do the barstard up. Make sure that the outter retainer is wound in all the way so that when you do it up tight it should only move no more tha 1/4 of a turn. If you disengage the tensioner then tighten up the retainer afterwards you will defenately break the tensioner as mentioned earlier

yer if you push the lug all the way back and lock it up with a allen key then screw the whole unit back it and relese the tension it will adjust its self