Cam Chain or Tensioner?

[georgedubyabush]

After a good long hot ride the other day my bike now rattles like a Bastard at idle. It straightens out at about 4krpm, then more rattle at about 8-9krpm.
With my state of the art Scewdriver stethioscope it's definately internal which is a no go zone for me.
I'm guessing the camchain tensioner is shot?
Not to be ridden till sorted incase it jumps a tooth?
What sort of cost?
This is a bastard as I cant get it fixed till well after NewYears, and I had the prick apart at the shop less than 5000kms ago with new clutch and valve shims done.

[Kwaka-Kid]

yeah dude possibly tensioner.. what kind are they? if it pokes out the back of the motor just rip it out and give it a polish up on the old wire wheel etc... bolt her back in and it could be good... but how many K's has it done also? is it worth doing chain @ same time ?

[Coldkiwi]

it'll be the tensioner. ZXR's are notorious for that. you can get a new assembly for it but that costs around $200 and it'll fail again in 10,000km's. Dodgy kwaka design sadly.

Most places recommend putting in a manual adjuster instead. Its basically a screw thread replacing the tensioning spring. just needs a tweak each time the bike is serviced and only costs 45 minutes labour to fit I think.

[Andrew]

it'll be the tensioner. ZXR's are notorious for that. you can get a new assembly for it but that costs around $200 and it'll fail again in 10,000km's. Dodgy kwaka design sadly.

Most places recommend putting in a manual adjuster instead. Its basically a screw thread replacing the tensioning spring. just needs a tweak each time the bike is serviced and only costs 45 minutes labour to fit I think.

Thats exactly what I got done at my last service. 2000k's later the cam chain tensioner still seems ok on the current adjustment.

However it is recomended as a temporary solution to the problem, it may buy an extra 20,000k's at which point you should look into getting your both your cam chain and your cam chain tensioner replaced.

[mattd]

hey i have just got myself a zxr 250 and got this problem.
just 2 questions,
why is the manual screw adjustment a temporary solution, i mean if it works why go and replace it with another tensioner that's just going to fail after 10,000km?
also any recommendations on good shops to get this done at?
cheers

[Hoon]

Yep common problem on ZXRs. Mine needed doing when I got it (38K)....rattled bad at 5-6K RPM. I pulled it apart to find the tensioner was fine so just replaced the chain ($200). Now its nice and quiet!

You need to replace your cam chain every 30K I think? You can't just keep adjusting it out as the stretched chain will affect your cam timing which will affect performance. And if it breaks your engine will be junk.

[FROSTY:Me]

I wonder if a tensioner off a bigger kwakka might be a bit stronger.The nutn bolt trick has been used as long as I remember and the only problem was a lil bit of oil seepage and the whole overtight issue

[mattd]

cheers, so is it an relativly easy job? i know my way round a workshop fairly well but havn't taking an engine completely apart before. im guessing you need to get the engine out before anything else needs to be done. should i give it a shot or let some professionals handle it?