27/08/2026
ONE CHUNKY TOOTH!
We've made some big changes to the overworked Barra chain tensioner with our Street Tensioner due for release in September.
We've made a host of improvements but in this video we'll focus on the 'locker' ratchet mechanism.
We have given it a decent upgrade in strength and durability because we know what you'll be doing with it! Now CNC machined in Sydney, Australia from billet EN steel with a thicker pin and a single STRONG tooth.
The big change is moving from two small teeth to one large tooth to give more strength and contact area. This allows us to have a larger, deeper engagement during the inevitable lock up that occurs in these tensioners.
What's 'lock up?' - That's just what we call the dynamic where the hydraulic assistance inside the tensioner is overcome by chain force causing the piston to be pushed into the tensioner, engaging the locking ratchet. The ratchet acts as a mechanical backstop, taking all the chain force directly via the tooth/teeth of the piston and ratchet.
That's not ideal but it happens on every engine because we have to limit travel for a variety of different different deck heights. Our race tensioner has some component changes to try eliminate this. FYI - if the ratchet fails on these tensioners, the body becomes the second backstop and stops the chain going fully slack.
We've designed this street tensioner to work with +-1mm deck height. Anything more than that.... wait for the race tensioner. This means gassy NA+T setups with a 1.8mm head gasket and a decked head will work, but we've designed it for a 1mm head gasket and a light skim on the head. We'll cover more on this in the next post.
If you have questions about the ratchet mechanism and our updates, let us know in the comments below!