I'm constantly hearing about timing chain replacement. Not to mention the tensioners, and guides that go along with them. That always seem to get chewed up. I had a belt driven camshaft on my 1979 VW Diesel. It had 137,000 miles on it when I sold it, and it was never touched. And if it ever needed replacement, it was a snap.
Simply remove the sheet metal cover, insert 2 dowel pins to lock the cam and crank in position. Then apply some pressure with a breaker bar against the tensioner, and slip off the old one, and install the new one. It was as, if not easier than replacing a Serpentine Belt that most all cars have today that drive everything.