Patent ID: 8840495

Claim:
A belt tensioner for tensioning a belt, comprising: a pivot shaft that is adapted to be fixedly mountable with respect to an engine block of an engine; a tensioner arm rotatably mounted to the pivot shaft for pivoting about a tensioner arm axis between a free arm stop position and a load stop position; a pulley rotatably mounted to the tensioner arm for rotation about a pulley axis; and a tensioner spring biasing the tensioner arm towards the free arm stop position, wherein the tensioner spring has a first end and a second end, wherein the first end is engaged with the tensioner arm; and a micro adjustment mechanism that is operable for directly controlling the position of the second end of the tensioner spring relative to the first end of the tensioner spring to thereby control the tension in the tensioner spring, the micro adjustment mechanism having an output member that is directly mounted to the second end of the tensioner spring such that movement of the output member causes corresponding movement of the second end of the tensioner spring relative to the pivot shaft.