This is one for Ford duratorq 2.4 owners only. Here’s the pesky timing chain tensioner which, if it plays up, will allow your timing chain to go loose when you turn the engine off. My van was bought with the front of the engine taken to bits and put in boxes. The reason for this was because the engine had ‘developed a rattle’. This slightly out of focus picture shows the tensioner as it came off the van. The flap that’s sticking up is spring steel and should be lying flat against the body of the tensioner. Underneath the flap, and what I’ve placed to its right is a little pawl about the size of a baked bean. This was on its side under the steel flap quietly doing absolutely nothing. The recommended solution to the problem is to pull the plunger out from the body of the tensioner, remove the spring and replace it with a piece of steel. This is supposed to stop the chain going loose when the engine is turned off. Could I really be lucky enough to fix the engine for the cost of 1.009 inches of steel and a tube of gasket cement? God, I hope so. I’ll keep you posted.
