Patent ID: 7513844

Claim:
A tensioner having a housing, and a plunger received in a plunger-receiving hole in the housing, the plunger protruding outward from the housing, biased in its protruding direction, and having an outer end, and a shoe connected to the outer end of the plunger, the shoe having a front surface for sliding contact with an endless, flexible, power transmission medium for maintaining tension therein and a back surface, a through hole formed in the housing, a locking recess formed on the plunger, and a stopper, the stopper comprising an elongated pin at least a part of which extends along a substantially straight pin axis, and a manually graspable handle connected to the pin and extending along a straight handle axis, the handle having thickness, measured transverse to the handle axis, greater than the thickness of the pin, and said part of the pin being extendible, from outside the housing, through the through hole in the housing, and engageable, inside the housing, with said locking recess of the plunger for preventing the plunger from moving in the protruding direction relative to the housing during handling of the tensioner before the shoe is engaged with a power transmission medium, wherein the axes of the pin and the handle intersect at a location that is outside said housing when the pin extends through said through hole and is engaged with said locking recess, and a part of the handle axis that extends beyond the intersection of the pin axis and the handle axis forms an angle with the pin axis, said angle being greater than zero and not greater than 90 degrees, wherein the stopper includes a pin holder surrounding a part of the pin extending along said pin axis, the pin holder having a rotation-limiting surface opposed to and engageable with the back surface of the shoe when the pin is engaged with the locking recess of the plunger, and wherein engagement of said rotation-limiting surface with the shoe limits rotation of the stopper about said substantially straight pin axis, thereby preventing rotation of the stopper beyond a limited range while the plunger is locked in a retracted condition by the stopper, but allowing the stopper to be rotated beyond said limited range when the pin is disengaged from the locking recess.