So I got the car to the house and into the shop. Basically the situation is about the first 3rd or half of the threads are stripped. The thing was probably not tightened down enough and backed out. If you tighten the bolt all the way down the tensioner is straight and the bolt seems to grab. I am not sure off hand what the torque spec is on it at the moment but the bolt did tighten good but I did NOT put a ton of pressure on it or try to torque it to whatever the spec is. I am half tempted to apply either some blue or red lock tight to the bolt and hope it lasts a while. Since it is my dads daily driver I would really prefer to fix it right, even though I would bet the lock tight would hold for a while. With the bolt removed the timing chain is right there. I have a bore camera I might be able to get down there thru the oil filler hole, or worse case pull the valve cover. I am thinking maybe if I do the time sert repair I can drill it out manually rather than using a power drill which would give me more control of it since I would be able to feel what is going on. I would bet I would end up having to pull the radiator and possibly the condenser to have room for the drill.

Anyway back to the lock tight, if I did try the route we could keep a very close eye on it and first sign of the thing becoming cockeyed, would then do the right fix. Heck I don't know.