WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY?

[Gloveberg]

Well, I got home from work this morning and guess what I heard before shutting off the bike?  The damn cam chain rattling!!!!!!  This means yet another cam chain tensioner has bit the dust and for the life of me I don't know why.  This latest one that failed was the one I got from Charles Otwell's bike.

This has gotten really, really old.  I really don't know what the hell is going on.  The only thing that I can say that is different from normal is that one guy on the Delphi board said that according to the service manual you are supposed to rotate the engine to TDC before installing the tensioner which is something I have not done.  Every time I have replaced them I just did it wherever the engine was at.

I do not hit the rev limiter on my bike but I do spend a lot of time in the 80-95mph range so I don't know if that is a factor or what.

Either way, I am really tired of this........

[roboto65]

Man that SUCKS big time I don't see how having it at TDC would help but I have heard weirder things again that sucks sorry to hear that...

[magnagregcan]

Not had this problem, but if the book says TDC, then TDC it MUST be! There is a reason why they specify this, but not sure exactly why. Do you, or the same person, only work on the bike? Hip hopping around is asking for big problems, for obvious reasons.
Good luck!
Greg

[roboto65]

Everything I am seeing in the manual has the tensioner installed and then set it to TDC but this is all for cam removal and such !!!!!

[Charles S Otwell]

Hey Jimmy not to add to your misery but the tensioner we pulled out of your bike ,that I rebent the broke spring and put back in my bike, is still going strong. Do you know a mechanic that has a scope that could check it out?

[Greg Cothern]

Jimmy wish I had an answer for ya bud!  I know several others who live in the upper RPM range and have yet to change out a tensioner.  And also have know a couple others who have had too.
Makes one wonder if there is not something out of spec..  Do you have a mileage count for each failed tensioner?

[Gloveberg]

I don't know what is going on.  Anyone that knows me will tell you I ride the piss out of my bike but I would not consider it abusing the bike.  I can count on one hand the number of times I have hit the rev limiter but I have no problem running it up to 9-10K before I shift.  I ride 65 miles round trip to work every day at probably 75-80mph every day.    I don't feel any weird vibrations nor does the engine ever give any indication of anything being "wrong".  My bike now has 75K miles on it and my main fear now is that possibly the cam chain has stretched somewhat and it's putting undue strain on the tensioner (just a thought).

Right now I am seriously thinking that after I replace the tensioner and do a possible tank swap to replace my dented tank I may just sell the bike and look for something else.  I cannot ride like I'm on some slow v-twin so if I have to poke around to keep tensioners from breaking then it's best I look for something else.

[Greg Cothern]

Jimmy give Dave Dodge a call and ask him if a out of spec cam chain could possibly be the culprit?
I agree the bike should handle the RPM's you run and not eat tensioners like this..