Ver,

One more question (sorry!):

I'm the lazy type.  I'd like to measure the wear in my cam chain, but I don't want to remove anything out of the ordinary to do it.

I'll be removing the head cover to torque the head bolts soon.  Can I measure cam chain stretch where the chain will be exposed adjacent to the camshaft?

TIA!

Just one more data point. I'm (finally) replacing the cam chain, adjuster and guides in my 2002. I bought the bike with about 12k and it has a bit over 22k now. I think I'm the second owner but not sure. I've always used dino oil and have no idea what the PO did.

The old chain measures 127.6mm as per the SSM (128.9 is the service limit). I'll be installing a verslavy adjuster.

(Verslagen: I'll be sending you my old adjuster. It was out pretty far when I disassembled but I'm not sure if the plunger had beveled out the opening yet. If you can re-use it, great.)

Here are my data:

Year:  2001

Mileage:  10,100 miles

Old or new adjuster:  The original adjuster was in there when I first opened it up.  I replaced it with a Verslavy 2-holer.

The original adjuster that was in the bike was the new-style adjuster, not the old-style adjuster.

Plunger extension:  14.5 mm

Chain stretch:  Not inspected

Indications:  None.  I opened it up to inspect the adjuster.

Repair action:  There was no damage.  I replaced the adjuster with a Verslavy

Type of Oil:  Dino (Mobil Clean 5000, 10W-40)

Rider Type:  Conservative to Moderate

Where do you ride the most:  Around town exclusively, with short spurts on the freeway or other fast roads around town

Number of previous owners:  I bought the bike from the original owner when it had 50 miles on it.  So, for all intents and purposes, I'm the original owner.

Both tensioner guides looked fine, as far as I could tell, I left them in there.  Both were original.

I set the Verslavy to the first hole, I could not quite reach the second hole yet.  There is about 3.5 mm of pin travel before the pin reaches the edge of the adjuster body cut-out.

I left the original cam chain in there.

Ver, if you need any more info, plz let me know!

Here is what the old adjuster looked like when I removed the clutch cover:





14.5 mm of plunger extension.

Digger wrote on 07/09/09 at 20:57:24:

I'm guessing that newer bikes are shipping with 9 or 10 mm plunger extention.  The 1st couple of mm's of wear will be fast due to high spot removal on the guides.  Leaving around 3 mm of wear for the 1st 10k miles.  Not bad.  You'll be switching to the second hole around 20k miles.  Dino or syn, that's good mileage.

Digger wrote on 07/10/09 at 10:46:00:

Thanks

Answer... don't worry about it.  You have the worry free version.  When the plunger hits the end of travel it will stop and your chain will begin to rattle.  A loose chain isn't a problem.  It will take tens of thousands of miles to wear the guides to the point that the chain will jump.  

If you look at the FSSNOC site, there's a thumper that they replace the auto cam chain adjuster with a manual one, externally accessable.  Adjustment procedure is to take it up tight and back off a little.  They advise this to get the max mileage out of the chain.

So having the chain a little loose for awhile should not be an issue.  I wouldn't change it untill it hits end of travel because it will increase spring tension which causes acceleration wear.  You'll note that one of the things that was changed with the latest adjuster is increased spring tension.  And we are experiencing accelerated wear over the old style spring.  Some feel it's low quality chains, others it's the oil.  All contribute.

To answer your question directly, about 10k miles.  Also note that in the adjuster check post, I recommend checking every 5k miles.  If you record the plunger extention at these inspection points, you'll be able to calculate when it will hit the end of travel.

1993
12.5k miles
old
18mm
did not check chain
noisy sound
replaced rear guide
synth
moderate
ride everywhere
11 previous owners   (yer i kno)

mark_k wrote on 04/03/10 at 13:07:30:


I had 14.5 mm of extension with 10,100 miles showing on the clock.  That comes to just over 1800 miles/mm.

Two questions:

1. Where did the "9 mm from the factory" figure come from?

2. Is linear wear over the miles a valid assumption?

TIA!  

chart updated, thanks for the info guys.