CAM Chain Tensioner Failure, and other tales of the road

[hop along]

So the past few weeks I've been riding my 'low miles' magna, from Oklahoma and back to an annual charity ride I do every year that supports entertainment industry charities.
it's a fun group, great ride, and each year the ride is in a different region of the US.  This year was the Pacific Northwest.  A great place to get away from the heat of Oklahoma.  Except when they have a hot weather wave show up while you're there.  The group is the Long Reach Long Riders... www.LRLR.org.

So the trip was great.  We ended on a Saturday, with departures planned for Sunday.  Another rider had a need to be back in Houston by Wednesday 6am for work.  So we decided we would ride the Iron Butt ride of 2,000 miles in 48 hours, from Seattle, WA to Norman, OK.  He would have time for a good 8-10 hours rest at my place before continuing to Houston tuesday.  Great plan.

As some here know, my 2003 Magna just turned over to 00,000 miles on my way to Mootmag this summer (AKA100,000 miles).  So after leaving Seattle at 5am Sunday, we were in Spokane about 10am when I heard a very sudden loud rattling sound.  Even going 80mph, with earplugs in, lots of wind noise, and my hearing loss, I still heard it plain as day.  Not cool.

So we pull into a Honda shop that we had just passed.  It had a sign that it was closed but we could see folks riding in the back, so we went in.  Finding it was a riders training class, and not the shop folks having a play day as we'd hoped, we hunkered down and thought about possible issues.  I had just installed new spark plugs before the ride and thought that mayber there was an issue there.  We both thought the noise was one of the front cylinders but couldn't tell if left or right.  So we pulled both front sparkplugs, using the stock toolkit and my buddy holding the radiator out of the way.  Good thing we had lots of extra water to cool things off before sticking my hands back there.

one plug, the front left (as you are sitting on the bike) had a strange discoloration on the white porcelain part.  See photo.  Otherwise they looked great, nice color, and they were tight (was hoping they were loose and making the rattling noise).  So, next step was to call Buddy from this list, who assisted in thinking the Cam Chain could have something to do with it.  He further assisted by sharing Greg's phone number.  Brilliant.  (and a HUGE THANK YOU GUYS!)  So while describing the noise, Greg aptly described it back to me as "sounding like a chain in a tin can rattling at 5,000 rpm".  Yep, pretty  sure it's the Cam Chain Tensioner. 
Now here's the fun part... my phone battery was dying, as in, it's been dying for many weeks now.  It doesn't hold a charge.    A new battery was supposed to arrive before I left Norman, but it didn't.  So here I am, talking to Greg, and within minutes the battery is beeping to tell me it is almost out of juice.  Bad phone.  So I get my charger and see there is a handy dandy outlet just over there on the side of the Honda shop.  Something is plugged in, looks to be battery tenders for the tractors on sale on tha porch.  So I say to myself "self, just plug it in there".  And in removing the plug find out it is realy a continuous circuit alarm, as in, you break the circuit, and it sets of a noisy alarm.  Bless Greg's heart  he didn't react much when I said I'd just set off an alarm.... and of course I'm hoping our conversation ends before the battery life of the phone.
We get the spark plugs back in.. alarm chiming away.  We are literally almost done when the County Sheriff pulls in... 30 minutes after the alarm started, and about 2 minutes after it ended.  We had our earplugs in it was so darn loud.  Needless to say, the Sheriff was a great guy and assisted us by escorting us off the property, and directing us to the Harley shop.  (really, that's not sarcasm.  He was great.)

Now of course, it's Sunday morning, in Spokane, WA, and the only shop open is the Harley shop.  Whose Asst. Service Manager happens to be the son of the Service Manager of the Honda shop down the road.  And who offers to see me first thing... Tuesday morning when the shop opens up again.  Not a great option, and knowing finding a Cam Chain Tensioner was not very likely on short notice, we sucked it up.

And rented a Penske.  the only truck available in town other than a very large and expensive UHaul.  And we drove from Spokane to Norman in the remaining 34 hours. 
We arrived Tuesday morning around noon.  My pal got a flight to Houston as we were knackered.  (I actually haven't heard from him since I dropped him off at the airport... I hope he isn't still sleeping there!)

Now, here I am, waiting for Cam Chain Tensioners to show up and hoping the Cam Chain itself isn't damaged.  The service shop tells me it is an 16-18 hour job to replace the Cam Chains!  Which I believe, based on looking at the service manual.  But wow.

Meanwhile, I do have one concern:  The spark plug's odd color in the porcelain.  Not that I am a smart spark plug reader, I get the basics, but I have never seen this.  Anyone care to contribute?  Of course, snarky remarks about the tirp, or the visit with the County Sherriff, are expected at this point.  Sorry it's a little fuzzy, but you can still see the brown discoloration of the white porcelain.

[lragan]

I have seen this effect on plugs that I replaced in automobiles.  My guess then, and now, was that the seal between the ceramic and the metal plug housing was either outgassing or compromised, or both.  It looks as though the plug has been really hot, but that may not mean much.  I remember being concerned in the process of an engine overhaul on the little four cylinder in an MGA sports car that I was disassembling to overhaul -- thinking -- "O, man, I bet the valves are burned on this one." -- but was not the case.  None of 'em were in pristine shape, and took a lot of lapping of new valves to seat properly, but the cylinder sporting the "burned looking" plug was no worse than the others.

So, I don't know what to tell you.  I have a fiber optic probe gizmo that will let you look through the plug hole at the inside of the cylinder.  You may be able to find one to borrow or rent.  New ones probably have a tiny TV camera so you can view it on a laptop.  If you can't find such a device, I would reassemble the whole cheese, forget about it, and ride on...

[hootmon]

I would talk to Allen.. I think he is the cam tensioner expert.. there is a post on here somewhere that tells you how to fix the tensioner out in the road..
I've seen post of people running the motor for a pretty long period with the racket going on and no damage to the chain, so, I think you are fine with just a new tensioner...

[hop along]

I will try to dig through previous posts regarding cam chain tensioner... sadly I haven't had a call yet that the tensioner has arrived.

and of course weather is supposed to cool off to the 80's this weekend.

Thanks,
Hop Along

[roboto65]

Yep you MAY be able to pull the tensioner and repair it the spring usually breaks at the bottom and you can just put a new bend in it. And Jimmy is the expert LOL but I have worked a few also. I did do a thread let me see if I can find it .

[roboto65]

Found it http://www.magnaownersoftexas.com/forums/index.php/topic,2315.0.html

[hop along]

Nice thanks... it certainly is a popular topic when doing a search here on 'Cam'...   

[TLRam1]

Is it fixed yet.... 

[hop along]

Yes it is fixed.  It was easy... once I bought a ratching box end wrench.  The little 8mm wrench that came in the tool kit just didn't fit well.  Neither did my hands reaching in the tight space between the V of the engine.  My thought here was 'work smarter, not harder'.  The hardest part was probably getting the 'locking bolt' to start threading after installing the Tensioner.  Kudos to Honda though for making well machined parts; once it was started, it was easy to keep threading, even with the light touch of one finger.

I had removed the fake cooling fins a long time ago, so those were out of the way.  Otherwise, it was thanks to long fingertips, the above mentioned wrench, and needle nose pliers (to remove the special locking bit once the tensioner was installed).  I did not change the rear one, but will do so the next time the bike is on the lift in my garage.

It was quite apparent that the front was broken; there should have been some tension on the two mounting bolts, even while removing them.  No tension=broken spring. 

next up: front brake pads.  Still pondering the one spark plug mentioned earlier... I may replace it with a new plug just to test the theory that one was not up to manufacturer standards.

I do have to say: nothing like the satisfactory sound of Cam Chain on rollers and guides, whirring away.  (Although on a side note, I noticed an intermittent sound I have been hearing for over 45,000 miles also went away... can you say LONG TERM SLOW FAIL OF CAM CHAIN TENSIONER???!!  Of course, I had thought, and my mechanics also thought back then, that there was a loose part somewhere that we just couldn't find (suction through the airbox was one theory).  The sound was only present at certain rpm's, in any gear.  I guess I owe my girl one as she called it about 20,000 miles ago....)

Thank you again...
Hop Along

[Greg Cothern]

I was 99.99% sure that was what it was....

[hop along]

... and just out of curiosity... what could the .01% have worked out to be?!? 

Personally I'd like to think squirrels in the airbox could make that kind of chatter, though I don't know how well they'd keep in synch with changes in engine speed....   

thanks again Greg for helping out on the phone!!!-
Hop Along

[hop along]

yeah yeah rebooting a dead thread...

... but I just had to replace my front cam chain tensioner again.  All said and done, I think this is #3 or #4.  Rear has never been an issue (though it was replaced preemptively with the first dead front tensioner, maybe that was at 110,000 miles?)

This replacement is now at about 156,000 miles.  I recently switched from Rotella T6 full synthetic 5w-40 to Rotella T5 semi synthetic 15w-40. 
Last replacement, I think, was around 120 or 130,000 miles. 

At least I have the change method down haha

Happy Riding
Hop Along

[TLRam1]

Which one normally goes?

[hootmon]

I put 70+K on my Yellow Magna
I have put 45K on my Red Magna
I have put 4K on my Black Magna..

I've never had a tensioner failure.. Knock on wood...
I believe it is almost always the front that goes..
I guess I should buy one just to be ready for the inevitable event..

Other than getting your hands in a tight spot.. What does a person need to know about replacing??

[hop along]

Which one normally goes?

Terry, the Front goes, I've never had an issue with the rear.
I now travel with a new spare tensioner, a ratcheting 8mm box end wrench, mini telescoping magnet, and a pair of latex gloves to do the job. 
Not recommended to do it while engine is hot... only tiny fingers fit!
Hop Along