Cam looks fine, chain is well within spec, which is a good thing. It is at 5.01 & that leaves me .06 to go. I will save the chain & reinstall it after I get all the miles outta this new one I can. The book states maintenance is required when the tensioner is at 18 mm, but 22.66 mm is the end of the ratchet. I had 18.75mm a few hundred miles ago, & didnt measure this time. I have bent the rear guide some, I hope I didnt go too far.  Also, I tied a light line to the cam chain before I dropped it, so I could just pull the new one up.
Modifying the tensioner to not be able to come apart looks easy. Drilling across the slot the spring loaded ratchet swings in & running a small pin to keep the ratchet from swinging far enouugh to allow the full diameter of the tensioner sshaft thru oughta do it.Just have to make sure to leave enough room for the ratchet to work right. Since the tensioner is rounded in the area the hole needs to go, a drill press & small end mill tool would be very nice. But a dremel & a determined fellow can get it I betchya,, I will report back,,

I will measure the new chain , I know how many miles are on it, & extrapolate as well as I can based on the wear to estimate how many more miles it would have gone. I suspect there is a good amount of premature maintenance in this area & I will see if I can help others avoid that $$ & time being wasted.

I hope the chain soaking in oil for a few days really helps the life of it. I expect it will , since the oil isnt delivered in huge amounts up there anyway & since a chain is doing it's best to sling oil off, anyway, I think the dry start a chain gets is bad news because any tiny groove/ridge rough spot, created only gets worse.

The head cover bolts, what a trip.. easy as heck to solve that puzzle..
Took a piece O cardboard & drew the right side of the head cover, outlines for valve cover, vent tube, motor mount & poked holes with the pocketknife where the bolts go & stuck them in. The center one that has to BE in when the thing goes together I put in from the bottom & wrapped tape on it to get my attantion. Did the same with the front left one that actually goes in upside down.Side cover bolts, same answer. For those of us who cant remember stuff so well anymore, I find it to be a time saving use of time to go to these lengths so as to not be figuring things out later. IF I had a better memory, I would just toss stuff in a can.

The benefit of carefully setting things aside when disasembling? I took a camcorder apart & didnt mess with it again for over a year. I had the batterys section away from the main body & the lens in another box, it was totally apart, & its working now. Took about an hour to poke it back together, cuz all the subassemblies were partially assembled & each one was with its own screws.

I put bolts back in the holes they came fromif they wont be in my way.


I guess I better get wound up to get back out there,,& piddle some more..Cant wait to get my grippers on that cam, BUT, since I am waiting, I guess I will go on into the carb,


It's waaay to pretty a day to be wrenching, but I am happy knowing the bike will be ready for summer & no big scheduled maintenance stuff looming on the horizon to mess it up.

OHH, cam timing looked to be correct on disassembly.