I figured I would post this since I was having difficulty with it, I figure others would have difficulty with it too. I had to pull my timing tensioner off when I pulled my head off, so obviously I had to put it back on. It was rather easy to compress with a large wood clamp since my largest c-clamp is 1/2 inch too small, but finding something small and hard enough to hold the piston in once the two holes were lined up was pretty hard. I tried a few things that I thought would hold, and now I've lost some tiny tools. I eventually tried my smallest allen wrench when I figured it would be worth it to sacrifice it. It held and didn't bend at all. So hopefully someone will come across this if they have the same problem.

I usually use the other half of a cotter pin and it works pretty good.

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really? I thought about using one, but the way it bent the large paper clip seemed like it would be a bad idea since the cotter pins are mostly soft and bendable. I'll try that when I retorque the head soon.

i actually use my jack and truck. i put the tensioner on the jack and pinch it between the frame rail of my truck to compress it.

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That's hilarious..I thought about doing the same thing..lol. I was too afraid it would slip and fly off in another direction or damage something. Wood clamp works though and is safer..lol.

Toyota actually ships new tensioners with a tiny allen key pushed through the two openings. The FSM suggests it too

Actually you guys will laugh, but I found the perfect thing for this. Go buy a set of mouse traps for .99c. The metal rod that arms the trap is EXACTLY the correct diameter to insert through the tensioners hole and strong enough to hold the force. Just cut that rod off with some wire cutters and there you go!

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man that's awesome..lol. Any specific brand of mouse trap?

lol the allen key works just fine and can be found in anyones basic tool box

by the same token you can use a screw driver if you dont have pins for your axel stands

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I wanna say that it was those common Victor traps, but I'm not 100% on that.


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The tricky part is finding one that is small enough yet strong enough. I originally used an allen key but then it got all bent out of shape and I had to redo the timing.

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I used a black allen key, since it's most likely hardened steel, it was pretty tiny and didn't even bend. The silver ones might bend easier