has anyone ,I did, left the tiny spring out of cam tensioner to allow it to act as a shock?

I'm not quite sure what you are saying but if you mean allowing the tensioner plunger to move in and out freely instead of only applying pressure prevented from retracting by the pawl. Don't do it! It is recipe for disaster. If the cam chain comes loose or off the sprockets the engine will self destruct.

The tensioner pawl is there for a purpose. To prevent the cam chain from pushing the plunger back into the body and thus becoming loose. :'(

I don't know. I think we've debated the idea that the warm up, cool down cycles on the short trip riders bikes just might be why the big difference between how many miles some people get before the tensioner is out too far.
While it's running, and the tension on the chain is pulling the cam around, and the slack is being controlled on the back side, it should be okay, but a little scary at RPM, because the chain is gonna push the tensioner to full collapse position, without the pawl to stop it.
Then, you shut down and the piston is headed into compression.
And backs the crankshaft up, pushing the chain up from the crank, towards the cam. When you hit the starter, it's gonna jerk the snot outta that chain.
I don't know how a tired old chain is, but a new one is a trick to get on without having the tensioner in the way.
If you are gonna play that game I would suggest getting it in gear and rolling forward until the motor stops you before you hit the starter, every time you push that button. You need to know that the slack in the chain is on the back side.

I've wondered about doing this. Wish you well.

The big danger that I see...is that when you are at low rpm, or the engine is being started or coasting to a stop - is that the lobes of the cam can be pushed around by the valve springs.  If you have ever rotated the engine with the spark plug out - you can feel when the valve springs are trying to rotate the crankshaft through the camshaft.  Even worse might be what would happen on those occasions when the engine kicks backwards at shut down.....where all the available slack in the tensioner will suddenly be kicked in.

A few of us have tried (are trying) very light springs inside the tensioner - but the pawl must be operational....or bad things could happen.

I must explain I have extended my tensioner, by 15mm at 19000 mi. I then road tested my bike with the spring for the paw(?) removed. It was a ride for a Fssnoc club ride in rugby Tn. from my home in N.Y. 2100mi. round trip, super slab on the way secondary roads back ,in three days.That was in 2014. I checked  the tensioner last week , saw no damage on chain or guide wear,25000mi. It looks like I should get another 10000mi
out of this original chain. stock motor except air filter ,150 main jet,harley pipe.

batman wrote on 05/08/16 at 21:37:52:



Would have been a good place to start.

As it wears the amount of slack in the chain increases. How that plays out could be interesting. For now, it Looks like you're getting a lot of miles/mm of extension. I've thought about the tooth spacing on the pawl, seems like it clicks into a new notch too soon. I'm seriously tickled someone is doing this test. I hope it works out, extends the life of the chain and does no damage.

Could it be that the cam chain "normally" runs with too much tension due to expansion of a rather tall engine?


The topic of several in depth threads. The heat expansion tugs on the chain while the tensioner pawl refuses to yield. There are ifs and thens, but that's the core.

I can't wait for batman to give us an update. It sounds dangerous but the proof of the pudding etc.