Heads Up for Reichard Racing tensioner users

[Dana]

For those of you using a Reichard Racing tensioner, some inspection might be in order.
There have been several reported failures of the pulley on the tensioner. The inner bore of the pulley becomes wallowed out because the outer race of the bearing begins to spin in the bore. There is no fixing this, once the bearing begins to spin. This occurs because the bearing is held in place by a snap ring only. It, the bearing, is not locked into the bore to prevent rotation.

So, in an effort to prevent this type of failure, Doug from BilletFlow has devised a method to prevent this failure or at least prevent the bearing from spinning in the bore.

The pictures below show the modified pulley which should prevent this type of failure.
The screws were added and the snap ring deleted by Doug to lock the bearing into the bore.

You can contact Doug at BilletFlow for more information.
BilletFlow

Replacement pulleys are also available from RR for those of you that find that your pulley is beyond repair.

Please keep in mind that these seem to be only isolated failures and may not affect everyone, but since the bearing mounting method is the same on all the pulleys, the potential exists for failure. The amount of tension applied to the belt may also be a contributing factor.

Dan

 

[Posi]

That's bullshit there! That is not a hard dimension to hold is just makes installation of the bearing easier! That dimensions tolerance needs to be tightened up!

 

[Dana]

That's bullshit there! That is not a hard dimension to hold is just makes installation of the bearing easier! That dimensions tolerance needs to be tightened up!

That's not the root problem. The problem is that the aluminum heats up faster and the bore dimension increases in size faster and more than the steel bearing does.
Thus, clearance is created that wasn't there and shouldn't be there. Eventually, the space becomes sufficient enough to allow the bearing race to spin in the bearing if it isn't locked in place in the bore, as it isn't with the originally supplied snap ring and is with the newly installed screws.

Dana