I have a 2015 XP 4 1000 that has had the cam chain rattle soon after I bought it. Tonight I installed a Weller Racing tensioner. I gotta say, it was a bitch. As soon as I moved the primary to get it to TDC it immediately jumped time. Things really fell apart when I removed the stock tensioner to get some slack to move the cam. I totally wish I had just pulled out the old one and swapped in the new one, instead of doing it the "right way".

What has been other guy’s experiences installing new tensioners? Did you have any issues rolling the engine over, or was it a piece of cake?

If you are planning on installing one in your car the one bit of advice I can give you is to make yourself a cam alignment tool. If your engine jumps time, you will need it. There is a slot in the PTO end of each camshaft (side opposite of the cam chain). A 6.5" long, 4mm thick piece of flat stock will fit perfectly into those slots and will keep the cams in perfect alignment while you install the tensioner. Once I discovered that little gem, it saved me a ton of time. I found it while reading the service manual I downloaded from this site (page 156, 3.80) Thank You very much to whomever posted that!!! I only wish I had read it before I started…

On the plus side, the rattle is now gone. After rolling the engine over by hand about 6 times to verify that it was back in time and that the cam chain was seated correctly, the engine started and ran perfectly. The Weller Racing tensioner works as advertised.

Chumley