Cam Tensioner Rod, Springs and Bolt

[Wrenchpuller]

Hi all,

It appears a previous owner has done a bit of a diy job on the camchain tensioner. The rod has been replaced with a cut bolt and there are no springs. Adjustment was done by a bolt and locknut to push the makeshift rod down manually. And the rod lock bolt doesnt appear to be correct either.

I have one of the new bronze bushed adjusters ready to go in, just wondering what the best course of action would be? I have a spare plug bolt and it looks like you can get the proper rod from DS, I've seen new lock bolts too. But the springs seem to be unobtainiable.

What do we think would be the best way forward? I have took some pictures also.

Thanks, Dylan

[Bryanj]

Dave Silver does a pattern pushrod but its all steel, no rubber pad.
You can get an tensioner plunger lock bolt kit from Honda Classics if the thread in case is OK , springs have be nla for some time but you  can use a bolt and lock nut down the capped off hole.
I would helicoil the two holes for the horseshoe bolts

[Bryanj]

This is the manual adjuster on ebay, TTR 400  is a member on here but in South Africa, may be worth a PM to him

[Wrenchpuller]

Ok ill see if I can get in touch thanks for your advice

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

It's an expensive upgrade, it looks great quality.

[Athame57]

The last thing I heard is that the two springs the push rod passes through can lose their strength over the decades but I can find nowhere that can replace them so far.

[Laverda Dave]

The last I heard was TTR400 only sells his horseshoe to DSS simply because the cost of P&P is too expensive to make it viable to post individually.

[Bryanj]

You can get the manual tensioner from 4 into 1 in the us or on ebay from them,

[Wrenchpuller]

Yeah i have one of the TTR400 horseshoes on standby, might just end up getting a TTR400 adjuster bolt and a pattern push rod.

I wonder if we knew the specs of the original springs we could get some made, would need to know the specific force of each spring as it was new though, which might be a stretch lol

[Bryanj]

I bought a box of assorted compression springs on fleabay for about £6, you only need something to keep a small amount of tension if you use the TTR400 adjuster.
If you go direct to 4into1 its cheaper to buy but postage is a killer, you need a friend in us to act as middle man!

[Wrenchpuller]

Right ok, I have some thinking to do! Since the lock bolt hole appears to have been drilled and re tapped to a larger bolt, I might just leave that in place but not all the way in and use a TTR400 manual adjuster, as he says to back off the lock bolt anyway if you are using this adjuster. I will replace the rod with a proper one and see what I can do about a spring or two.

[Bryanj]

There used to be a kit available where you drilled out the hole bigger and fitted an adaptor that used the original bolt OR look up "Timesert" which will do the same thing, or something like the link below with internal 6mm thread

[Bryanj]

The original repair kit was made by a firm called noxandrattles but there no longer apears to be an internet presence

[Wrenchpuller]

Thanks for the info!

I have a lathe and a pillar drill so I ended up making my own insert because there were a few 'quirks' from the job someone previously did on it.

Firstly, the hole they drilled was off centre and off axis by about 5 degrees.

Secondly, the thread they very poorly tapped is a 3/8 UNF thread.

What I ended up doing is getting some aluminium rod, threading the ouside to 3/8 UNF, then putting it in the pillar drill with the bed set to a 5 degree tilt and slightly off centre, then tapping the off axis hole to M6

I then threadlocked it into the hole and sanded it flush.

I have attatched pictures of the measurement then of the inset i made then one with the proper bolt in my insert.

[McCabe-Thiele (Ted)]

Nice bit of work.👍