After a few weeks of nagging, Stinger's '02 finally came over for the cam chain replacement today. However, after opening it up and a long telephone brainstorming session with Max, we decided to wait until winter....
Stinger's engine has more than twice the mileage but a couple millimeters less tensioner extension than mine did (it's posted somewhere). After 30,600 miles his tensioner measures 19 mm and there is no "out of round" or wear in the tensioner body itself.
Since his engine has no leaks we decided not to "fix" any
This winter after a few thousand more miles we'll open it up and change the chain...
It's hard to tease Stinger about the fact that he never uses 1st gear, or that he sprays his brake rotor with WD40, or that he only uses automotive engine oil, or that he
never had the initial service done ever, at all. I'm pretty much the only mechanic that's ever touched his bike.
He rides his bike 65-75 all day long if he wants, it has no leaks or smoke, and the bike looks brand new. Must be doing something right
I also like the coating on the inside of his engine case...I guess that when they started painting the engine in 02, they did the inside too