Hi all!

I recently bought my first Savage. An '88 model. I'm not unfamiliar with bikes or wrenching, but this is my first air-cooled, and my first single cylinder engine.

At first inspection it appeared quite sound, but it was dirt cheap, so I wasn't taking anything for granted.

There was a quite distinct "ticking" from the valves/rockers, so I've adjusted the tappet clearances to spec and that helped somewhat. I also replaced the leaky exhaust gasket.

My question is basically this: When riding at moderate speed with a helmet on, are you supposed to quite clearly hear the the valves/rockers? If not, will cam wear be my next place to look?
I have not checked the infamous cam chain tensioner yet.

Apart from the "ticking" it runs good, starts easily, and the spark plug indicates a pretty acceptable mixture. It has a fairly open aftermarket exhaust, but has not (to my knowledge been re-jetted). There is a slight backfire on engine shut-off, but nothing dramatic.

I intended to tear the engine down and go over it thoroughly, but the spring appeared with a bang and the snow cleared (I live in Norway), and now I would prefer to have it in ridable condition  

all opinions appreciated

cheers
Mikael

Does it have a windshield,......because that can sure make an engine appear to be noisier than it really is !

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I just came back from a short ride, and there is definitely more mechanical noise than there should be. I will be checking the cam chain issue before I do much more riding. By chance I bought a compression tester yesterday, so that will also be done shortly.

I'll be back with the results.

thanx again

Mikael

I guess it really was time to check the cam chain tensioner!!

20mm extension on the plunger is, from what I have read on this forum, way past acceptable. Now to chose from the suggested mods.... any suggestions?

Am I right in assuming that this would be enough to cause the rattle that I am hearing?

cheers
Mikael

Well, I went for the "extend the bolt hole on the plunger" mod

I haven't assembled the clutch cover yet so I can't positively say it's fixed the rattle, but I would be surprised if there wasn't a significant improvement.

It's probably been done a lot of times here, but I thought I'd document the mod with a picture series:

1. I cut off a little piece of 5mm steel plate to the approximate width of the tab on the plunger.


2. I lined the right edge of the steel plate up tangent to the right edge of the bolt hole on the tab and marked the location on the steel plate. I then

marked the new bolt hole 15mm to the left.


3. I center punched and drilled the hole to 9mm. The edge was the slightly chamfered with a countersink.


4. I ground a radius on the left end of the steel plate, and a slight chamfer on the side that will be welded


5. The tab on the plunger was ground down to the inner tangent of the old bolt hole.


6. The pieces were TIG welded together. I didn't use any filler rod as the steel plate was a bit thicker than the tab on the plunger. They flowed together

nicely.


7. The newly modified plunger was slightly cleaned up on a coarse polishing wheel and the edges blended a bit


8. Et Voila! I counter bored bolt hole a bit more as the spacer on the bolt wasn't clearing the new thicker tab. On assembly I couldn't remember the trick

for disabling the ratchet mechanism, so instead I used a choice selection of both norwegian and english swear words, and that seemed to do the trick.

Thanks

There really wasn't much holding that plunger in its housing, so I'm real glad I checked it when I did!

When I eventually replace the cam chain I will drill a new hole in the original location, buy a new plunger/tensioner assembly, or machine a new plunger.
But hopefully I'll get a couple of years out of this mod

Mikael

babyhog wrote on 04/13/11 at 10:54:33:

Thanks

The bike has 39.000km on it, so aprox. 24.000miles. It was due for a tune-up

Mikael

EJID wrote on 04/13/11 at 11:53:03: