SuzukiSavage.com - Cam Chain

DragBikeMike

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Re: Cam Chain
Reply #30 - 07/10/20 at 11:26:13

Norm, it's fairly easy to remove the rear guide with the cylinder in place. I checked that when I first set up my tight quench engine. Did some mockups with the engine out of the bike to make sure I would be able to do it. I wanted to be able to periodically inspect the guide.

You have to remove the clutch to provide enough room to pull the guide down & out. You also have to pull pretty darned hard. When it goes back in you also have to push up pretty darned hard. Putting a small chamfer in the material around the pivot bolt helps. Then you have to get that bolt through the hole in the head & guide, but I did it without wrecking anything. Just takes patience. Tenacity helps too.

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DragBikeMike

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Re: Cam Chain
Reply #31 - 07/10/20 at 11:38:52

Taking the pawl out will relieve some stress on the guide, but you lose control of the intake closing event. Limiting the back-travel with a stop in the tensioner mitigates the valve control issue, but not under all conditions. If you remove the pawl and don't install a stop to minimize the back travel, you end up with the plunger moving back & forth a whole bunch. If you are looking for performance, valve control is pretty important.

This photo gives you an idea of how much that plunger moves around when the pawl is completely removed. I removed the pawl and greased up the plunger, then rotated the engine through several times. Each time the intake cam lobe goes over the nose the valve springs drive all the slack out of the rear side of the chain. It causes the plunger to retract. The result is the intake valve closing way before it should. It also negates the deceleration ramp ground into the cam lobe because the valve is driving the cam rather than the cam holding back the valve.

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Tensioner_Plunger_Stroke_2.JPG

« Last Edit: 03/17/22 at 23:00:30 by DragBikeMike »

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norm92de Serious Thumper Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 1180 El Paso TX Gender:	Re: Cam Chain Reply #32 - 07/10/20 at 13:25:25 DBM, Thanks for the reply. Very helpful.
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verslagen1 YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline Where there's a will, I want to be in it. Posts: 28761 L.A. California Gender:	Re: Cam Chain Reply #33 - 07/10/20 at 14:06:30 should work now https://thumpertalk.com/shop/ThumperTalk-Manual-Cam-Chain-Tensioner-ENG-TT-MC...
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Armen Serious Thumper Offline Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey Posts: 1431	Re: Cam Chain Reply #34 - 07/10/20 at 20:55:27 Hey Badwolf, Did you add a friction plate or steel one? thanks
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badwolf Serious Thumper Offline Ridin' my Lil' Bagger - 153k miles so far Posts: 793 Palm Beach County, FL Gender:	Re: Cam Chain Reply #35 - 07/10/20 at 21:23:04 I doubled up one of the steel plates. It was .060'' thick. Then had to make a new pushrod that much longer. I can't get to slip now at all. The pull seems just a little bit harder, but not much.
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Armen Serious Thumper Offline Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey Posts: 1431	Re: Cam Chain Reply #36 - 07/10/20 at 21:29:14 Thanks!
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Dave YaBB Moderator ModSquad Offline SuzukiSavage.com Rocks! Posts: 17818 Camp Springs, Kentucky Gender:	Re: Cam Chain Reply #37 - 07/11/20 at 03:37:29 If you are going to try adding a steel plate - add it where the friction plate rubs against the aluminum hub. MMRanch said his inner hub had worn and when he added a steel plate the slipping stopped.
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Armen Serious Thumper Offline Half-Witted Wrench-Jockey from Jersey Posts: 1431	Re: Cam Chain Reply #38 - 07/11/20 at 06:23:27 Thanks!
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DragBikeMike

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Re: Cam Chain
Reply #39 - 03/17/22 at 23:19:10

Since I have my engine torn apart to repair the transmission, I thought it would be wise to measure the cam chain. The original 2016 cam chain has about 23,500 very hard miles on it. Lots of those miles with heavy valve springs and high lift cams.

The 21 pin measurement is 5.010”. The sprocket to sprocket measurement is 10.343”. If you look at the data I posted two years ago you can see this well used specimen is right about where all the other chains were in the original post.

The majority of the miles were logged with a tensioner that utilized a pawl. The chain just doesn’t seem to wear very much at all.

If any of you have chains with known mileage and operating conditions, howzabout measuring the chain using a technique similar to the one I used in this post. Record your data here so we can see what the trend is.

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TheSneeze

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Re: Cam Chain
Reply #40 - 03/18/22 at 08:52:58

My bike's odometer reads 9800+ miles, but it's use is a complete unknown (other than the uphill cam lobe starving for oil). I will measure my chain and post up what I find, but I won't be able to use the sprocket to sprocket method as I don't have two sprockets. Oh wait - I might have another in the pile of engine parts I scored... I will look around, but either way I will post the measurement and method used.

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TheSneeze Serious Thumper Offline Posts: 1201 Northern Nevada Gender:	Re: Cam Chain Reply #41 - 03/25/22 at 13:58:08 To my trained eye, the 21 pin measurement on mine is 127.53mm, or 5.020".
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Cam Chain Reply #42 - 03/25/22 at 16:01:33 Don't just toss a chain on. Put it in something and cover it in oil.
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TheSneeze Serious Thumper Offline Posts: 1201 Northern Nevada Gender:	Re: Cam Chain Reply #43 - 03/25/22 at 17:01:29 Good advise, but not my first engine build. Thanks, JoG
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justin_o_guy2 Serious Thumper Offline What happened? Posts: 55279 East Texas, 1/2 dallas/la.	Re: Cam Chain Reply #44 - 03/25/22 at 23:17:47 Jus tryna help,mang..
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