348 engine out major

With the nut and lock washer removed I now slid the tensioner brackets off the shaft.
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With the tensioner off the mounting bracket, separated from the pad, and with the mounting shaft out of the way, NOW I can slide the plastic release shaft out of the tension block, and remove the block and spring from the bracket.
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Another pic of the worn out tensioner pad. Not as bad as the pad for the cam pulley, but still worn enough that I'm gonna replace it.
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The top guide, attached to the cover, is still in pretty good shape. So I'm not going to replace it, and will be reusing it.
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Here is a side by side comparison of the old wear pad, and the "new" wear pad. The replacement pad is a part I bough from bretm. It's slightly used, and really has hardly any wear on it. It's in new enough shape for me, and will do the job just fine. Thanks Bret.
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And now for a close up of the manufacture numbers for the oil pump tensioner.

Renold, Brit. Pat. NC 1.190.366
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How this tensioner works is,

Attached to the bottom of the bracket is a strip of plastic with rows of little teeth on it. Then on the underside of the tension retaining block there are also teeth. The teeth on the bottom of the block mesh with the teeth on the strip to lock the block in place. The spring, inserted to the back of the block, is keeping constant tension on the block pushing it towards the mounting shaft. As the pad wears then tension pushes up on the pad. At a certain point of wear the little block will lift out of the grooves/teeth, and will allow the spring to push it further in, retightening the tension on the chain, and relocking the block back down into the teeth of the strip.
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The tension block has a keyhole machined in it which the release screw fits through.
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To reassemble the tension locking device I first set the little block, with the spring inside the back of it, into the retaining bracket.

Then I insert the release shaft through the notch in the bracket, and key hole in the block, into the hole at the other end of the bracket. The other purpose of the release shaft is to hold the spring in place, keeping it from popping out when is gets compressed.
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Here was the tricky part for me.

To get the spring compressed I had to, hold the tension bracket with one hand, then with the other hand grab hold of the little block, lift it UP, and out of the row of teeth on the strip. It will only lift so far because the release shaft prevents it from moving up any further. While doing this you need to make sure the release shaft doesn't come out of the hole at the back of the bracket. So, with the block lifted off the strip I compressed the spring as far as I could. THEN I pushed it back down on the strip, and held it down with my thumb.
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Here is where the notch for a screwdriver comes in.

With the block compressed, and held in place by me pinching it with my fingers, I can now lock it in place with the release shaft.

What I did was to twist the shaft 90º so that it locked onto the back of the bracket, and onto the front on the block. I was able to get it twisted with a screw driver by myself, but an extra pair of hand can be useful. This is how you lock down the tensioner and part of what the shaft is for.
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And here is the tensioner locked down, and ready for installation. If you look you can see the shaft pocking out the back side of the bracket.
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With that done I'll move on to replacing the front crank seal.

The part number of the old seal is:

Gaco Angus Inc. 52556
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I flipped the cover face down. Inserted a big socket into the back of the old seal. Then gave it a good smack with the sledge, and out popped the crank seal.
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Some pics of the new crank seal.

Elring
45 60 8
2
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I positioned the new seal on the front of the cover with the numbers facing out. I found the old cam belt idler bearing was just the right size to use for putting the seal back in. "Adapt and improvise".
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Then I placed a piece of wood over the bearing, and gave it a good smack with the sledge, setting the seal into the cover.

I really need to get a shop press.
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Turned the cover over to make sure the seal was all the way seated against the back. It needed just a teeny bit more adjustment on the one side. Made the adjustment and it's good to go.
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With the crank seal done I decided to put the tensioner back on the cover.

After putting the wear pad bracket on top of the tensioner bracket, I started to slide it onto the mounting shaft, and found it came to a stop. A look at what was causing it not to go all the way on I found that, the release shaft for the tensioner was hitting the little lip for the mounting shaft nut.
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That's an easy fix, just press the area for the screw driver on the release shaft in with my finger, and slide the tensioner all the way down.

Again, notice that the bracket for the wear pad is positioned on top of the bracket for the tensioner.
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Now the lock washer and nut get put on.
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Then screw it down, fastening the oil pump chain tensioner back to the cover.

All done ready for business.
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The bearing I replaced, in the block, for the lower cam belt pulley it's the only bearing. There is also a bearing on the cover, which the pulley shaft runs through, that I will be replacing. It had a little bit of play in it upon inspection.

So using a pair of snap ring pliers, I removed the snap ring on the back of the bearing.
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Using a pick I then removed the shim, and set it aside.
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Flip the cover over and remove the snap ring from the front of the cam pulley bearing.
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