Fireblade camchain noises?

**jonbuoy** · 7th October 2011, 06:35

Not wanting to accuse anyone but hopefully they didn´t find your last tensioner seized up and just cleaned it and put it back in? Have you had the carbs balanced? Makes a big difference on my CB if the carbs are out of balance.

**spanner spinner** · 7th October 2011, 20:35

Mate put a new cam chain in the bike the chain is worn out, I used to have the same model blade as yours and the cam chain is only good for 50000km max. The reason that your tensioners keep failing is that they are working in the last quarter of their adjustment range where there is not as much spring tension to control the cam chain. This causes the tensioner to back off and then retighten making the tensioner fail, or the cam chain could have a tight section which causes the same problem (cam chains suffer from the dreaded tight spot same as drive chains) I spend all day fixing dead and dieing bikes so have plenty of experience in problems like this.The new chain will give you a performance boost greater than the best tune up by returing the cam timing to what the factory expected it to be. I allways fit a new cam chain at 50000km for this reason.

hope this helps

**35tickets** · 8th October 2011, 19:16

Originally Posted by spanner spinner

Mate put a new cam chain in the bike the chain is worn out, I used to have the same model blade as yours and the cam chain is only good for 50000km max. The reason that your tensioners keep failing is that they are working in the last quarter of their adjustment range where there is not as much spring tension to control the cam chain. This causes the tensioner to back off and then retighten making the tensioner fail, or the cam chain could have a tight section which causes the same problem (cam chains suffer from the dreaded tight spot same as drive chains) I spend all day fixing dead and dieing bikes so have plenty of experience in problems like this.The new chain will give you a performance boost greater than the best tune up by returing the cam timing to what the factory expected it to be. I allways fit a new cam chain at 50000km for this reason.

hope this helps

Agree with all of the above...have fitted new cam chain to my ZZR1100 and its like a new bike the power is back and working sweet. If you are wearing out tentioners thens its a good bet the chain is stretched and wearing. If you haven't already done so ask for a price on the original honda cam chain, and then check if DID do a cam chain - thats what I got for the ZZR and it was half the price of the original

**p.dath** · 8th October 2011, 19:30

+1. I felt like I had new bike when I had the cam chain changed on my CBR600F. I had a cheaper after market chain put on.

**Fast Eddie** · 11th October 2011, 18:36

Originally Posted by spanner spinner

Mate put a new cam chain in the bike the chain is worn out, I used to have the same model blade as yours and the cam chain is only good for 50000km max. The reason that your tensioners keep failing is that they are working in the last quarter of their adjustment range where there is not as much spring tension to control the cam chain. This causes the tensioner to back off and then retighten making the tensioner fail, or the cam chain could have a tight section which causes the same problem (cam chains suffer from the dreaded tight spot same as drive chains) I spend all day fixing dead and dieing bikes so have plenty of experience in problems like this.The new chain will give you a performance boost greater than the best tune up by returing the cam timing to what the factory expected it to be. I allways fit a new cam chain at 50000km for this reason.

hope this helps

That sounds like the go mate! that was exactly what I was thinking these last few days, I thought to myself I bet the chain is stretched so much that the tensioner is having to work way too hard and is failing.
The only bit that got me was that I had paid MCR to open up my bike and check the cam chain less than 5,000km ago and they had given it the OK, said it was unstretched and would not need replacing anytime soon so I didn't..

.. anyway its in the shop now, they are still assessing it but im pretty much gonna tell them to put a new cam chain in. Thanks for that! much appreciated

**Fast Eddie** · 14th October 2011, 19:51

And to wrap up the thread:

Cam chain stretched - seems Blade camchains have a life span of about 50,000km in a well maintained but high rev'd engine

cam sprockets/gears and tensioner etc still seem to be ok

cheap part tho, 120 bucks for a cam chain, so all good on the wallet. Compared to the 2 tensioners I lost on this stretched chain which were 206.00 bucks each.

Thanks for all the comments etc, the Blade will be running mint (hopefully) when the chain arrives ex japan.

**Warr** · 14th October 2011, 21:09

Have been following this thread with interest as I have a rather high mileage (215k) Hornet 919.
Are there any similarities motor design wise ?
My motor sounds sweet as by the way

**spanner spinner** · 15th October 2011, 13:50

Hornet 919 is the same engine as the blade with a different head fitted to suit the fuel injection. Cam chain and tensioner are the same set up as the blade but the tensioner has a different part number (only the designer of the tensioner that works at honda would know if there is any difference between the tensioners). The cam lift and ramps are milder in the hornet so they don't load the cam drive as much, which gives the chain an easier time.

**bsasuper** · 16th October 2011, 07:06

Check the condition of the camchain drive sprocket as well, its prone to wear.No point putting a new camchain on if its worn as it will wear the new chain out much faster.

**Fast Eddie** · 11th November 2011, 12:31

mint, just got my bike back - it was the cam chain yip, had that replaced with a honda part, pretty cheap, 114 bucks or something. And yea bike shop said sprockets/guides/tensioner etc all looked fine and did not need to be replaced. MCR in dunners work on my bike, mint job. I like that they text ya and tell you what they are doing each step of the way and keep a record of what they have taken apart/done on the bike etc. And they always give it a good look over make sure its safe and if anything needs attention. I can recommend them to anyone in Dunedin that needs serious work done that can't be done at home. They have couches, free coffee and motogp/bike racing dvds and big screen too for while you wait, nice touch

Bike does feel great now, can't say I have really noticed a power increase, its still pretty quick to me in the high rpm haha. but its runs really nicely and quiet so I'm a happy man again. May look at getting it on a rolling road for a tune? anyone got any experience in this?

**p.dath** · 11th November 2011, 19:03

Originally Posted by Fast Eddie

Bike does feel great now, can't say I have really noticed a power increase, its still pretty quick to me in the high rpm haha. but its runs really nicely and quiet so I'm a happy man again. May look at getting it on a rolling road for a tune? anyone got any experience in this?

That's great news.

When I had the cam chain done on my Honda CBR600F there was a very noticeable change in the bikes attitude. The throttle was definately omre responsive.

**Fast Eddie** · 11th November 2011, 21:36

Originally Posted by p.dath

That's great news.

When I had the cam chain done on my Honda CBR600F there was a very noticeable change in the bikes attitude. The throttle was definately omre responsive.

yea, was hoping to notice a change but nah.. can't say that I can, feels the same as before. but the annoying rattle is gone so I'm happy. bike could be due for a tune eh, its had a bunch of new parts put on and hasnt been on a rolling road or had a tune up yet.. might be the next thing on the list.

**bsasuper** · 12th November 2011, 10:32

A lot of repairs I get at work, (cars that is), is due to lack of maintenance, even on modern cars only a few years old.Had a subaru turbo in the other day blowing a lot smoke, turbo bearings failed due to lack of oil changes, when I asked the customer when the oil was changed last he replied he did it every 15,000kms-because he thought synthetic oil lasted that long, should be every 6000k, the money he thought he was saving cost him $3k in repairs + the chance motor internals could be damaged(he did not want to the expense of taking off the sump to check for debris), what im getting at is something as simple as a strict oil change time (using quality oils) can make a huge difference to reliability, even on honda camchain tensioners.

**Fast Eddie** · 12th November 2011, 13:37

Originally Posted by bsasuper

A lot of repairs I get at work, (cars that is), is due to lack of maintenance, even on modern cars only a few years old.Had a subaru turbo in the other day blowing a lot smoke, turbo bearings failed due to lack of oil changes, when I asked the customer when the oil was changed last he replied he did it every 15,000kms-because he thought synthetic oil lasted that long, should be every 6000k, the money he thought he was saving cost him $3k in repairs + the chance motor internals could be damaged(he did not want to the expense of taking off the sump to check for debris), what im getting at is something as simple as a strict oil change time (using quality oils) can make a huge difference to reliability, even on honda camchain tensioners.

That is solid advice - I consider myself pretty good with maintenance (and in the end the cam chain tensioners were fine it was the worn/stretched cam chain that was damaging the tensioners I believe) and I spend the nights/dark/rainy times in the shed checking things over etc. cleaning greasing lubing - I have the workshop manual for my model so I follow the service schedule on that pretty closely with the exception of changing the oil more frequently than Honda says I should (they prob base their intervals on mineral oil maybe) I change the oil every 5,000km on the dot or earlier and I use a semi synthetic oil, Castrol Power 1 GPS or whatever its called these days, they seem to change the bottle n name every year haha. and the price keeps going up. (just an FYI, I was buying my 4litre bottle from a bike shop for damn near 100 bucks a pop, I was in repco one day and I saw they sold motorbike oil and the exact same stuff I was buying for a 100 was just over 60 at Repco.. been saving myself a small fortune since then. Not all Repcos stock motorcycle oil but some do!

Anyway - just had the sweeeeetest ride on the blade out on the twisties. Just one of those days, the tyres must have been hot, the road must have been hot cause she was turning in so easy and so quick and could give it a real handful of drive out of the corners and it was alllll grip. Biggest grin iv had in a long time and still grinning a half hour after getting home!

BRING ON SUMMER! - Hope everyones having some good times too, on and off the track

(gotta say been having a tonne of fun on the track in the sidecar lately too, numbers are slowly climbing in the south island.)