[quote name='Cloud9...68' post='57482' date='Aug 6 2008, 07:29 PM']Since you've used your arrnworx tensioner tool several times, I assume you've used it to re-tension your balance shaft belts a few hundred miles after replacement. Have you noticed it get looser between the time you replaced it, and after driving it awhile? I don't have a tensioner gauge, and have used the various "by feel" methods you describe, and I've never been able to detect one iota of loosening of my BS belt after driving it awhile following a replacement. Nor has the degree of whine ever changed over time, so I'm wondering if the recommendation to re-tension is no longer important (because of improved belt materials?). Going in there and trying to re-tension has, in my experience, caused more problems than it has solved, so I'm wondering if my experience is common. Thanks.[/quote]
I'm not certain that I can truthfully answer your question, simply since I put so few miles on my cars. My 944 eas a project car that I bought with a failed timing belt.....and the resultant bent valves. So. when I rebuilt the head, I installed new belts. Drove the car about 1500 miles before selling it (that 1500 miles took about a year!). Both 968's I have owned came to me with very loose BS belts. On the first car which had an accurate history, I just retensioned the belt and then drove the car about 4k miles without needing to retention it. On my current coupe, the history was suspect, so I changed out both belts when I did a cam inspection. When I pulled the plastic covers off, I found the BS belt very loose on this car as well.
Believing that the BS belts stretch, I set the tension on my replacement BS belt on the high side, assming that a little stretch would occur (hopefully enough to just get rid of the belt whine that I now hear). Since I have only put about 500 miles on the car since changing the belt, I can say that there has been some noticeable reduction in whine, but it has not quite disappeared yet.
So, after all that, I just can't answer your question. But, bottom line, I believe that the Arrnworx tensioning tool works, though not quite as accurate as the P5201. The tool was about $60 when I purchased it. I then spent a little over another $100 to buy the spanner wrench for the BS sprockets and the thin wrenches neeeded to reach the sprocket retaining bolts.
