cam chain tension - 1/8" vs 3/16"

no750 · Oct 22, 2023

Hi, i used to set cam chain tension to 3/16 up and down movment. recently i read to set it up to "a minimum of 1/8 up to 3/16".
1/8 with an engaged spanner on the cam gear nut feels good, but released it feels like no free play at all.
What do you think?

hybridracer · Oct 22, 2023

no750 said:
Hi, i used to set cam chain tension to 3/16 up and down movment. recently i read to set it up to "a minimum of 1/8 up to 3/16".
1/8 with an engaged spanner on the cam gear nut feels good, but released it feels like no free play at all.
What do you think?

I trust you have a cut down timing cover screwed to the engine while setting the chain tension. This is essential.

no750 · Oct 22, 2023

hybridracer said:
I trust you have a cut down timing cover screwed to the engine while setting the chain tension. This is essential.

Thank you. i used the special tool from AN to fix the INTERMEDIATE GEAR SPINDLE.

hybridracer · Oct 22, 2023

Excellent. After the first couple of times that I set the cam chain tension I stopped worrying about the actual measurement and just made sure that the cover went on freely without any sense that it was pulling the chain tight.

ashman · Oct 22, 2023

I been running an auto timing chain adjuster for over 35 years now and haven't looked back to adjusting timing chains, it pushes down on the chain and not up like the stock set up, it works on a ratchet, days are gone pulling the timing cover off every 10k miles to adjust the chain and up setting the timing and all, been over 13 years since I had the timing cover off, you know when a cam chain needs adjusting you can hear them when running.
After over 47 years you pick up on these little things, changes in sounds and feel when running, just like the bike is talking too you.
The auto set up was one of the best upgrades and $110 well spent at the time.

Ashley

Thomasa · Oct 22, 2023

I remember a discussion in the Norton shop about this accessory. One argument was that as the sprockets are not perfectly concentric the ratchet would compensate at the loose point and then the chain would be over tight at the tight point. I don't remember how the argument ended but I suppose that if the teeth on the ratchet were coarser than the variation in concentricity the issue would be moot. I did not add this unit though I wish I'd bought one several times in the intervening years. Maybe it's good that I've left well enough alone.

robs ss · Oct 22, 2023

ashman said:
I been running an auto timing chain adjuster for over 35 years now and haven't looked back to adjusting timing chains, it pushes down on the chain and not up like the stock set up, it works on a ratchet, days are gone pulling the timing cover off every 10k miles to adjust the chain and up setting the timing and all, been over 13 years since I had the timing cover off, you know when a cam chain needs adjusting you can hear them when running.
After over 47 years you pick up on these little things, changes in sounds and feel when running, just like the bike is talking too you.
The auto set up was one of the best upgrades and $110 well spent at the time.

Ashley

Did you get your's from Kelly Cork Ash?

ashman · Oct 23, 2023

robs ss said:
Did you get your's from Kelly Cork Ash?

Rob I say its one of his, I brought it from Classic bikes that use to be at Glenview but they had moved to Colandra on the Sunshine Coast where I brought it, but that was a long time ago, works a treat, I got the paperwork somewhere with fitting instructions.

cam chain tension - 1/8" vs 3/16"

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