Highlighting edge of tensioner wheel?

[Baal]

Here's what I was talking about with respect to hand sanding the tensioner wheel. The edge of the bearing sleeve protrudes beyond the lip of the inner ring of the wheel:

So, you can't just lay the sanding material on a flat surface and rub the wheel on it. You'll hit the end of the bearing sleeve. My notion was to tape over the bearing, so none of the sanding dust got into the inner hole or onto the bearing seal. But, after just a few strokes, I found that the tape was getting abraded:

So, enough of that. I think the approch to take would be to get a rotary grinder or a good sanding block, support the wheel so it won't move, and have at it. I suspect that it'd be slow-ish going until the hard coating on the edge was gone. After that, you'll be polishing the raw surface you expose.

Like I said, I may go find a used one and work on it, then swap it onto the bike. Or, if I can get the bearing retaining ring (on the inboard side of the wheel) out and pull the bearing and seals, I could do it on a flat surface. But that may be introducing work I have no interest in.

HTH!

 

[vtech007]

This is very good information. Thank you for the write up. This is all good to know by anyone considering this project. Better to already have this knowledge than going at it and THEN finding all this out. Thanks again.