Cam Chain Tensioner Question

Fortunet 1

Fortunet1
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I've got a cam tensioner question (thanks for help in advance)
Today I checked all valve clearances and found two exhaust clearances (on cylinder #1) that I will need to change the shims on. Well maybe just one. Front exhaust was at .009 (the lower tolerance on my spec sheet) The one behind it (exhaust) was at .008, surely needing a shim change.

I went through all the other cylinder valve checks and came back to these two and again measured the same equivalents. (needing shim change)
My question comes up when I proceeded to the cam chain tensioner. I ground a narrow screwdriver slightly to fit in the slot under the 8mm sealing bolt and watched the tension release inside the motor housing. I did not make a "stopper tool" as shown in my manual and did not notice it returning to tension on the chain inside.

Will it stay put as I continue on to remove the cam shaft holder bolts and holders~ (A and B) ? And when I do replace the cams what is the required tension?
When I started it was not found at max tension (left turn) and right turn loosens it. It was about a quarter turn looser than max tension.
If its in the manual I could not find it .

I also watched a member replace his cams and oiled them on the followers when installing. Plain motor oil OK?

Thanks so much ! I had a nice learning school doing the clearance checks today and it was a BREEZE lining up the TI and T2 marks through the front inspection hole with the forks and wheel assembly off the bike. SOOOOOoooo much better than using a mirror with the wheel and forks on.
 
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Will it stay put as I continue on to remove the cam shaft holder bolts and holders~ (A and B) ? And when I do replace the cams what is the required tension?
When I started it was not found at max tension (left turn) and right turn loosens it. It was about a quarter turn looser than max tension.
If its in the manual I could not find it .
(This is for the left cylinder head) When you screw in the cam chain bolt to relax the cam chain it may or may not remain fully relaxed. What many of us have done is to take the screw driver and use a Vise-Grip to lock the screw driver in place. I use the Vise-Grips to clamp onto the screw driver shaft and then place the Vice-Grips handle inside of the tip over bar. It holds it just fine. When you're finished with adjusting the valves and putting everything back together you will turn the screw driver counter clockwise, fully, and then reinstall the access bolt. That's it. There isn't any specification for how tight or loose the screw is supposed to be; just fully counter clockwise.

Now, as for lubing the lifters, etc. The manual calls for a molybdenum solution, which is a solution of engine oil and molybdenum grease (not molybdenum paste) (molybdenum grease contains at least 3% molybdenum, and has a thinner consistency than moly. paste has. You will find this information on about page 4 of the service manual). What I, and many others do, is to use assembly lube. Put the moly. solution (or assembly lube) on all of the cam lobes and journals (page 8-27 & 28 of the service manual.), as well as the all of the journals of the cam shaft holders (both of them) and the cylinder head.
 

dduelin

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John, You want to release tension on the cam chain and then lock the tool in place. There is nothing to keep the tensioner from unwinding when you attempt to lift out the cam shaft and you need all the play in the cam chain you can get to lift the cam out and fit it back in. I used a small pair of locking pliers (vice grips) clamped on the handle of the screwdriver tool. Place the pliers where they bear up against something to keep the tensioner from unwinding. After the cam shaft is back in place the tool can be released. You might have to manually unwind it a bit for the spring load to take over and tension the cam chain on it's own. It should set to the correct tension on it's own.

One thing I suggest if it's not in your plan is to take a zip tie and run it through a hole in the cam shaft gear and tighten it around the chain on the gear to positively fix the cam chain on the gear. Do both cams so there is no way to get the cams out of time. I didn't do this the first time and had to fiddle around extra time getting the cams in phase. The next time I used this tip from a previous thread STO and it was a breeze keeping the cams in time.
 
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Fortunet 1

Fortunet 1

Fortunet1
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John, You want to release tension on the cam chain and then lock the tool in place. There is nothing to keep the tensioner from unwinding when you attempt to lift out the cam shaft and you need all the play in the cam chain you can get to lift the cam out and fit it back in. I used a small pair of locking pliers (vice grips) clamped on the handle of the screwdriver tool. Place the pliers where they bear up against something to keep the tensioner from unwinding. After the cam shaft is back in place the tool can be released. You might have to manually unwind it a bit for the spring load to take over and tension the cam chain on it's own. It should set to the correct tension on it's own.

One thing I suggest if it's not in your plan is to take a zip tie and run it through a hole in the cam shaft gear and tighten it around the chain on the gear to positively fix the cam chain on the gear. Do both cams so there is no way to get the cams out of time. I didn't do this the first time and had to fiddle around extra time getting the cams in phase. The next time I used this tip from a previous thread STO and it was a breeze keeping the cams in time.
I should have purchased one of those yellow tubes of marking goo for the job, but waht I did do is clean the cam gear edges with denatured alcohol and marked both the cams and the chain where they came together. That way they will match perfectly where they came apart. Just dont rub them off with your fingers or a rag ! Yipes! Next time I'll have some yellow dots where they match up.
 

dduelin

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I cleaned the cam gears off along with the chain and marked the chain and adjacent gear tooth with a sharpie but inadvertently wiped the marks off with a rag when wiping off oily parts during the cam removal.
 
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I cleaned the cam gears off along with the chain and marked the chain and adjacent gear tooth with a sharpie but inadvertently wiped the marks off with a rag when wiping off oily parts during the cam removal.
I've used my wife's nail polish (she wasn't home ;^) and it worked pretty well.
 

ST Gui

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dduelin said:
The next time I used this tip from a previous thread STO and it was a breeze keeping the cams in time.
I'm not one to get anywhere near this deep into maintenance or repair but that tip is genius. I like the lack of possibility of the cams getting out of time. No if/then to even consider. Brilliant!
 
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Fortunet 1

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I've got a question (Dave) about using the zip tie method....joining the cams to the chain. Will they fold out of the way enough to not interfere with pulling the cam buckets out?
Seems to me they might get in the way a bit. Or would you just hold them up vertically with a mini bungee cord to the handle bar grip? I do like the idea !
 

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Follow the procedure in the manual and ensure the time mark is aligned. When aligned the markings on the gears will also align with the leading edge of the head. No matter which method you choose, the tensioner needs to be locked out. I store the cams in 1 gallon zip lock baggies, 1 cam per bag and marked as to intake or exhaust, to keep them clean while out of the engine. Regular motor oil is all that is needed when putting things back together, you just don't want dry parts. When installing the cams again follow the procedure in the manual. Since you didn't rotate the engine the cams go back in with the proper marks again aligning with the front edge of the head. Once everything is tight, before putting the valve cover back on, rotate the engine a couple of revolutions by hand and then align the timing mark and double check that the proper cam gear marks are lined up with the head. Double check that the shim change you made resulted in the expected results before putting the valve cover back on. Don't forget to put the tensioner access bolt back in or you'll have a heck of an oil leak.

Take your time and double check everything and you'll be fine.
 
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Fortunet 1

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"So all you need to do is to let the spring wind the helix until the chain tension guide meets the chain. If you turn it in by hand, you might put too much tension on, which will not automatically slacken in use. In practice, it is ok to wind the tension by hand, but then slacken it off a bit and let the spring take up the remainder of the slack itself."

Agreed .....It does take a bit of a learning experience with that tensioner spring. I watched its operation several times with my high powered LED light, down inside that channel.


"I just wrapped a wire around the chain so that it didn't all drop down !" At first I used a wire AND a mini bungee, then using only the bungee (attached to the handle bar) as I lowered the one exhaust cam back into its original position.....cylinder head marks and my own marks on chain and cam.
 
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Fortunet 1

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But do bear in mind that if the chain has slipped a tooth on the bottom sprocket while it was slack, the marks on your chain will be wrong.
Must not have happened because the bike started up and purred like a kitten with that new 02 sensor and a fresh set of iridium plugs. prrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrr rrrrrrrrrr
 
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An observation: When I did my valve adjustments, recently, I too marked the cams and chain, and religiously made sure that the chain stayed taught, so as to not come off the bottom cogs. I had to remove both intake and exhaust cams for valve adjustments. Put everything back together and test ran it. I'm too embarrassed to admit what I did wrong, but I had to go back and redo the valves (one head only). What I noticed, when the cams were aligned properly (the cam marks were as shown in the service manual), was that the cam chain marks I had previously made were not aligned with the marks I had made on the cam sprockets. This leads me to believe that aligning the cam chain to the cam sprockets is not significant, but aligning the cam sprockets to the head is very important.
 

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This leads me to believe that aligning the cam chain to the cam sprockets is not significant, but aligning the cam sprockets to the head is very important.
You can easily verify this by marking the sprockets and the chain with marks, rotate the crankshaft by hand a couple of revolutions and you will see that your marks no longer line up when they come back into view. It is always critical to verify that the cam sprockets are aligned to the head whenever you remove the cams.

As an aside, whenever I'm simply performing the valve clearance measurement I don't bother lining up the T1 or T2 marks at all but instead just line up the marks on the sprocket to the heads for whichever cylinder I'm checking...
 
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Fortunet 1

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"
As an aside, whenever I'm simply performing the valve clearance measurement I don't bother lining up the T1 or T2 marks at all but instead just line up the marks on the sprocket to the heads for whichever cylinder I'm checking...
Lining up the T1 or T2 marks in the inspection hole (to achieve top dead center on any given piston) is important (along with those marks you mentioned) is how I will be performing these checks down the road. It's a good exercise / refresher course in the ST's mechanics.
 
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My ST1100 obviously has no cam chains, but my VTR1000 has a very similar arrangement to the ST13. On this I have cable tied the chain to the cam sprockets, and then applied a little upward/outward lift to keep the chain tensioned so as not to drop off the crank sprocket. I then remove the bolts that hold the cam sprocket to the camshaft, and leave the sprockets connected to the chain more or less in their usual location, while the camshaft is removed. Should then be impossible to mess the timing up. As I don't need to hurry, I only ever pull one cam out at a time.

One mistake I made was forgetting to cut off the cable tie before I rotated the crank. I had a few nervous moments searching before I found that it shot over my shoulder when it snapped, rather than falling down the camchain tunnel...
 
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Fortunet 1

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My ST1100 obviously has no cam chains, but my VTR1000 has a very similar arrangement to the ST13. On this I have cable tied the chain to the cam sprockets, and then applied a little upward/outward lift to keep the chain tensioned so as not to drop off the crank sprocket. I then remove the bolts that hold the cam sprocket to the camshaft, and leave the sprockets connected to the chain more or less in their usual location, while the camshaft is removed. Should then be impossible to mess the timing up. As I don't need to hurry, I only ever pull one cam out at a time.

One mistake I made was forgetting to cut off the cable tie before I rotated the crank. I had a few nervous moments searching before I found that it shot over my shoulder when it snapped, rather than falling down the camchain tunnel...
Thanks for the humor and the post Terry !
 
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