hey guys, long time no post. ive been riding a 98 kawi ZX7r for the past few years, while i passed my interceptor on to my brother. So being the family mechanic and i still own the bike, i decided check and adjust the valves because it has been a long time since its been done. tonight i pulled the rear valve cover off and i could easily lift the cam chain off the sprocket but not enough to jump timing... Realizing this is bad and would explain how it has had a rattle for a while. so my question to you all is has anyone had this problem before and how might i go about fixing it short of tearing the motor apart to change the cam chains and tensioner? While part of me wants to rip the thing apart and start a full rebuild on the motor (48199 on the odometer) but when i put her away last fall she ran well and has ran well for a while (except the rattle that it has had since i bought it back in 08) me pulling on the chain the sag in the chain between the sprockets
You most likely don't need the chains. Just new cam chain tensioners. There's a rod on the tensioner that goes thru a hole in a locking arm. If you take the tensioner apart some to get the rod out of the hole. You'll notice that the hole is worn and no longer has square edges, so the rod won't lock. Plus some times the rods are worn a little. So new tensioners are needed. I've thought about welding the hole and redrilling to get a square edge. I have a used set I'm going to try that on soon seeing I've got a nice welder on loan to me. My motor has 63k on it and the chains are still ok.
that is good news... what is involved with changing the tensioner? i have both clymer and the factory service manual and neither are really specific on what the camshaft tensioner is or how to change it. all of the parts diagrams i have found show what the manual calls tensioner as a bracket and the the parts diagram calls the tensioner as the guides that runs down the side of the cylinders... what im hoping is the tensionor is in the center of each cylinder bank that you can reach with some extensions.
First off throw that f*&king Clymer rag away. Then go over to here:Login and go down to the third post. It has a link to a very good,w/pictures, procedure on changing tensioners. Need any other help pm me. I've done this several times and it's not that hard. Just may need patients. Actual location for the pdf procedure:http://www.carlparker.com/downloads/CC-V4TensionerSwap.pdf
