Curious about what happened with the different folks out hehre working on different tensioner mods.

How's Versy's seconday spring to allow a little more movement working out?

How's Batman's?? idea of no pawl and just letting the tensioner move? The only problem I might think of with this would be wear inside the tensioner bore since the tensioner isn't designed to move all the time.

Anybody else working on something?

Armen, the bottom of our drive final drive belts have slack in them (we twist them 90 degrees with thumb and one finger) how does that effect their performance ? all the tension is on the top of the belt .the cam chain is pulled over the cam gear by the drive gear on the main shaft with all the weight of the flywheel and alternator  and is therefore under tension any time the engine moves from hitting the starter to WOT,the tensioner is merely picking up the slack on the back side of the chain which is still under tension (it's not flying around)and I believe if the main spring is strong enough to push the piston out it should be strong enough to act as a shock and prevent the chain from going oval coming off the drive gear .I believe it has for the last 11,000 of the 30,000+ miles I have on it to date,with about 90% reduction in chain stretch and no unusual wear on the guides thus far.

The big problem I see with having "no pawl", is what happens when the engine is at very low rpm.....the conditions that exist when you are starting the bike or it is coasting to a stop when you turn off the ignition.  When the valve spring pushes on the back side of the cam lobe, it places a lot of force on the chain and will make the "backside" of the chain tight and the "front" side loose....there will be a lot of flopping around of the cam chain in those first or last revolutions.

Armen is correct that if you remove the pawl, you need to have something to limit how far the valve springs can pull on the chain at low speed.....and perhaps while running to keep the chain from coming off the sprockets - the existing spring is never called on to resist the forces of the chain, as the pawl does that.  The spring pushes on the plunger and the pawl grabs another tooth when it can (perhaps too frequently), and I believe this likely happens at "startup" when the engine is cold.

I am very likely to try a "manual" tensioner this winter.......it should get me through until an updated design is completed by the "machinist" guys on this forum.

norm92de wrote on 08/14/17 at 08:25:33:


If you remove the spring - but leave the pawl in place......the tensioner will likely stay at whatever setting you place it.  Then when you feel the need to adjust it....a small tug will get another notch.

batman wrote on 08/14/17 at 11:05:53:


If you leave the pawl spring in place - but remove the plunger spring.....the pawl will stay in place right where you set it.  the orientation of the pawl and teeth will not allow the plunger to every go backwards.  But without the plunger spring...there is nothing to push the plunger out any farther.

In the last bike I did I put a very weak spring in the plunger....that way it is not as "anxious" to grab another tooth on the plunger, and maybe the cam chain tensioner will allow a bit more time between adjustments.

JOG,I believe you'll be waiting a long time. I don't think that idea is sound. Finding a spring of proper  strength, in a size small enough to fit in the area,  will prove almost impossible. The fact that the softer metal of the tensioner body has to slide back and forth against the mounting stud and the snap ring ,might also cause damage and metal grit entering the oil system.If the new spring is to weak the tensioner will be pushed back against the stud and act as it did ,if the spring is to strong,the pawl will advance ,but when the cylinder expands will the tension of the chain on the back side be strong enough to move the tensioner back ? If not ,there will be no gain either way.

I agree that it been done by at least one member ,but I've not heard that it has worked.I was once told "the proof is in the pudding" ,I've had 1mm of stretch in 10,000miles ,if you have the same results I'll be very impressed,and be asking if you have one for sale.good luck, and keep us informed.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 08/14/17 at 12:56:56:


I did  what you describe to my upgraded tensioner.  The problem I had was finding a mount spring that was stronger than the plunger spring.   I think that I did find one, however as I tested it on my make-shift fixture.  When I installed it in my bike, I did do some pressure testing and it did allow the tensioner to go "backward" about .050" - the amount I elongated the mount hole.

I have had it installed now for over 3,000 miles and no strange anything.  Bike runs perfectly.

Finally, I have not had the side cover off since installing it, so I can't attest to its effeciency.