Read through the cam chain library in the tech section.

But in short, at least in my case after 20k miles the chain stretched only .01".  Yet the tensioner was ready to fall out.  22mm projection of the plunger.

The gears are pretty hard, they don't wear.

The guides are coated in plastic, yet when replaced don't pull the tensioner all the way in.

The best we've seen with new chain, new guides and new tensioner is 7/16" or 11mm projection.  No one here has seen (or is likely to see) a brand new one.  So we can't compare.  But I think 11mm may be the way it comes from the factory.  For those that have to replace it early, it may be worse.

We have mixted new and old parts without much inprovement.  This is from memmory so don't shoot me, it's late.  Depending on what's replaced of course.  Best effect will be seen if you replace the parts that are worn.  (any body got a dead horse?)

Like many manufactures, I think zuki set this one up to require maintenance every 5K miles.  If you pop the clutch cover with that frequency, you'll catch it time easily.  Or if you take it to the stealer, it'll give them a chance to bend you over.

So IMHO, the major flaw is the fact that the tensioner will come apart and cause a piston to eat a couple of valves.  If it could do it's thing, and stop before it fell out.  Then the bike would tell us when to get in there and fix it without throwing us over the handlebars.

'nough said  

That would be great! If you could make a very careful measurement of the tensioner plunger as it extends from the housing, that would be very telling. The measurement is done from the face of the tensioner body to the tapered section of the tensioner"rod" that has the rear guide bolted on it. Like the guy at the gas station said" YOu Caaan't missit!" Digital callipers are cheap & very useful in the garage when messing with things.. Shouldnt pay over $20.00 for a decent set.

I bought a digital caliper from Harbor Freight for $8.99 , saw it in the flyer I get from them every month, sent my wife to pick it up, and she came home with the dial indicator type, which was more expensive, BUT, I love my wife, and now have 2 nifty calipers to play with  

I wonder if something didnt get away inside the right side & smack the speedo drive? Could it be the tensioner popped out & junk got tossed around in there? If so, you daggumed lucky to get it home. Whatever happened, I would not be able to fire mine up till I had a look in there.. Good luck, hope its quick, cheap & easy..

To the best of my memory there wasn't any Savages that sufferred from cam chain concerns on the old German site of Bert's. Seems like there was one high mileage commuter in San Diego that had the problem at 97 K miles, other than that I cannot remember the problem on the other forum. I think the cam chain problem is either multiple vendors and poor quality control on their part or are you ready for this, we are using the oils that have had the additives taken out that could kill the CAT (Cataylic converter) on a motor vehicle (if the engine were to start burning oil) that kept the chains alive. I do have an article in a publication called "The Professional Technician" that discussed the flat bottom (non roller) lifter problems they had in pushrod engines when the oil companies reduced and changed some of the oil additives to meet the concerns of the USEPA. Maybe we need to look back at what we are using and see if there is a pattern failure there. My tensioner housing was worn very badly out of round when I took it out and was almost ready to fall apart. It did when I moved it slightly. I put in a new chain, the guide that can be replaced w/o pulling the head, new tensioner and crank gear as I broke it with the air wrench. That was before all the measuring discussion so I don't have any measurements. I've seen worn guides on Honda singles and my Kawasaki MULE engine and if the Savage guide was worn it didn't groove like the others do. Mine was still flat but I ordered the parts before I had it that far apart so put it in. Remember that chains do not stretch, they have wear occur in the plates and pins that is referred to as stretch. Previous discussion on oil additives were concerned about the posibility of wet clutch problems and the solution there was to use oil that was not only rated for gas engines (SJ), but diesel engines before 2007 (CD or whatever) and even the Japanese rating suggested by suzuki motors. Any thoughts on that, maybe there is a reasonable reason for using motorcycle specific oil.  It would be less expensive than the parts (and in some cases labor) in the long run, to say nothing of the lost riding time.  Also why did the few engines "explode' around the balancer shaft, was that the tensioner spring dropping down in the gears? Hope you can sleep tonight mulling this over, Max