Cam chain tensioner

[Murf]

The tensioner I have is knackered, the tensioner pad has wear and cracks and the tensioner arm had not been fitted correctly, it wasn’t in the pocket in the crank case. It has wear marks at the bottom which look looks like it was catching on the primary drive chain.  The Drive chain looks undamaged.
Silvers have complete tensioner for around £145 +  but I have seen just the pad part for around £50, what are your views on these options? Also is the original tensioner arm, not pad, even reusable due to the damage.
I realise that fine metal particles from this damage could have circulated around the engine in the oil, which I am not happy about but don’t want to strip and rebuild the bottom end.

I had the sump off when I first got the bike, it looks like it has been off and cleaned in the past, there was a small deposit in the sump under where the tensioner was catching the chain.  I didn’t take much notice as I didn’t know of the problem at that point. The mesh oil pick up screen was very clean.  I have attached Photo to try and show damage.

[Bryanj]

That is bent due to incorrect fitting, you can, if lucky, straighten it but you need one to compare it to, put up a pic of the slipper for advice, getting a used tensioner is unlikely, i will be stripping a couple of 550 sometime in the next 6 months but no idea of condition

[davidcumbria]

I bought an aftermarket tensioner blade from Cmsl - it seemed more flexible than the original but that could be due to heat hardening of the ( slightly cracked ) original. It’s a critical area on these bikes and if I had my time over I would splurge on a new complete oem unit to be sure that chain noise is minimised after all the rebuild effort, though for now at least it’s quiet on mine. Primary chain is reputed to be the source of a lot of noise.

[Bryanj]

Is this a 500 or 550?

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

550K1  looking at earlier posts.

[Murf]

Hi all and thanks for your replys, it is a 550K1, someone had done a top end overhaul before I got the bike, what a mess, the incorrectly fitted cam tensioner is just one of many cock ups which I am sorting out. 
My question was about seeing what sort of new cam tensioners people had used and who the supplier were.  David Silver does have them at about £170 inc vat, it does say they are from a good Japanese manufacturer, so I will probably go with that.
My intention is to do a good job and end up with a nice reliable bike I can use.  I know it’s not going to be cheap. 

DavidCumbria your thoughts about wishing you had fitted a full replacement are interesting and I think that is what I will do seeing as how the original has been damaged.  I will have a search for suppliers.

[Bryanj]

The primary chain problem is less on the 550 than 500, the crankcases are a different casting, primarily for the gearbox but i believe the main oil gallery in the lower case is slightly farther away from the chain.
The 500 frequently has deep gouge marks in the gallery where the worn chain eats into it and there are stories of actually wearing through, though personaly not seen one that bad.
The 550 still gets marked but not as bad, again in the ones i have seen.
The wear is bad enough and the bottom end normaly so reliable that if you split the cases you change the primary chain, especialy now we know a kawasaki one is the same at half the price

[AshimotoK0]

Very easy to damage the end on the tensioner .. I thought I had damaged mine when I wrongly assembled mine last year but it turned out OK in the end. At the time Ken (Oddjob) who was on here had six spares ... pretty sure he must still have at least one.

[deltarider]

Maybe it has been asked before. About tensioning the camchain, does it make a difference if the engine is warm or cold?
Could a somewhat increased blueing of the headers indicate it's time to tension the camchain?

[Bryanj]

No and No, blueing is probably single skinned aftermarket headers

[Murf]

Hi
I am considering just fitting a new cam tensioner pad into the old tensioner to save a bit of money. CMSNL have oem one for around £90  and none oem for around £40, cheapest complete tensioner is around £180 at DS,  any thoughts on what you would go for?

It looks like I also need  to change my primary chain as well, so interested to know about the Kawasaki chain that is the same and half the price that is mentioned in the thread. Primary chains at DS are £69 +vat so about £81.80, CMSNL are more expensive.
Thanks

[Bryanj]

The search function is your friend but i was board so Kawasaki 92057-1011

[Bryanj]

Fowlers

[deltarider]

No and No, blueing is probably single skinned aftermarket headers

Thanks, Bryan. Exhausts are OEM. I never quite understood what causes blueing. A since long deceased racer once told me that when the headers blue, one way or the other, your firing is late. I'd like to learn more on this.

[K2-K6]

Maybe it has been asked before. About tensioning the camchain, does it make a difference if the engine is warm or cold?
Could a somewhat increased blueing of the headers indicate it's time to tension the camchain?

It shouldn't make any difference that's measurable in the design used.

The "pull" side of chain going from camshaft to crankshaft has the dimension set from design (not altererd by adjustment) to facilitate correct timing always. The non pulling side feeding up,to camshaft from crankshaft, just has to be controlled by the provision of adjustment tomstop it flapping.

Pedantic and technical, chains aren't generally "tensioned" as the loading if they are will advance wear on the bearings etc used to support them. The spring in the adjustment mech is specified to avoid tightening too much, then to give a problem.  This is the same for cam belt design too.