sorny

It's that nice feeling when when you finally do something you've been worried about for a while.

Knocked them out yesterday. Also put new plugs in and changed the oil at the same time, so I'm ready for Spring. The CCT instructions had me scared to death but I think I was just overthinking it. I just pulled the rear valve cover off and followed the direction on Clem's site (VTR1000 directions) and had it done in a few hours, taking my time.

The only thing I didn't do was the first half step 10:

10) Unscrew the small bolt in the end of the rear cam chain tensioner and remove it along with the alloy sealing washer. Next turn the screw head inside the cam chain tensioner clockwise two full turns, lock it off in position using a locking key. The Haynes Workshop Manual shows you how to make a simple locking key. Tape the key in place once you've locked the tensioner off, as you don't want the key jumping out. Next undo and remove the cam chain tensioner. If you are using this guide to fit manual cam chain tensioners you can lock the tensioner in position without retracting it first (using a locking key), to give you a measurement that can be transfer to the manual cam chain tensioner before fitting it.

I figured since the other directions I've seen didn't mention it I didn't worry about it and I didn't have any issues.

Sure feels nice to have them done and not have to worry about the stock CCTs and screwing up my bike anymore. It's got 26,000 miles so I was getting nervous about having the stock CCTs on it. I definitely can't afford to fix the damage from the CCT screwing up.

jimmygs3

Ah that feeling that your motor is not going to randomly grenade itself. I did mine last week with the same instructions.

I wish I had planed far enough ahead to do the pair block off and sync the carbs while I was in there.

sorny

Yeah I was thinking about how it wouldn't hurt to sync my carbs up but I was lucky to carve out enough time to do the CCTs, plugs, and oil change so left it at that.

But it sure feels good to not have a little sick feeling in my gut every time I ride that my bike is gonna explode at any second.

Appletonhawk

I just purchased a set of APE CCT's off Ebay and just need to find time to install them now. Hopefully before riding season because I have close to 30K miles on the stock CCT's and they are making me nervous as hell after reading all the posts here.

Appletonhawk

Speaking of buying off Ebay my CCT's were advertised as APE and when I recieved them they were not in APE packaging? One was just in a clear zip lock bag and the other was in some other packaging, but nothing says APE on it? Did I get screwed? THey look exactly like the APE, and considering the are manual should I expect any problems?

jscobey

i had taken my bike in to have the CCT's replaced for manual ones and i specifically said i didnt want the OEM automatic ttype because they were known to fail. i guess the kid wasnt that knowledgeable and orderd the OEM cct's anyways. i went to get the bike and i was a little pissed but i ended up with a fresh set of free OEM cct's installed. still i hate the feeling of impending doom at any moment when i roll off the throttle. especially at the track where things happen much faster and at much higher RPM's. i want to get this done just for the piece of mind.

CruxGNZ

They only have a few parts to them, so there's not much to screw up. So, even if they are off brand, I wouldn't be to worried. As long as the manual CCT bolt can be tightened, it has a jam nut, and has a gasket, you'll be good. To go a little further, some new designs have bolts with o-rings installed to keep them from weeping. If yours doesn't have this, you can use teflon tape on the bolt.

TAMPAHAWK68

Did you keep your old ones?...Manual oem ccts. total investment..$1.27 and a few hours of install time.

sorny

Mine were kind of generic too (not APE) but were just in a generic looking package but I got them off ebay. Figured it was a piece of aluminum with a bolt in it so what could screw up?

jscobey

no i didnt keep them. like i said by i was distracted by the fact that i had already paid half to have OEM CCT's put in again. fortunatley was refunded and got a little peace of mind knowing they were at least fresh OEM ones. i still only have maybe 5000+ miles on them and havnt heard of anyones going THAT early, but ive read of them going only a few thousand miles more than that.

so just bought a pair of APE CCT's though and im gonna put those in soon.

what i dont like about the stopper mod on the stockers (i could have very easily and for much less $, done this on my current CCT's) is that eventually they will still FAIL. just like they do without the stopper mod.

its not that you have cheaper manual CCT's, its just that when they do fail, they wont back out so far as to let you cam chain skip teeth and cause bent valves. so basically they will still fail but you wont destroy your engine.

unless im assuming wrong and you actually did make manual CCT's out of the stockers. i just have only seen the "stopper" mod done on the OEM's.

i dont ever want to be stranded, have things fail at a trackday (even with the stopper mod, it ruins your trackday forcing you to leave early) or have to pay for new valves, pistons, etc... because i neglected to head the many dozens of warnings and horror storys on here about the aftermath of a failed CCT.

what i still have yet to understand is why did honda go with automatic CCT's anyways? i know that alot of bikes had auto CCT's but why? if manual ones work just as good and there isnt any failures than why ever have an auto one?

obviously the auto one can change tension applied based on RPM's but is this all that important? if it is than there must be a downside to manual CCt's that i have yet to hear about...

sorny

I've still got my old stockers if anyone wants them to do the manual mod.

jscobey, I'm thinking he's talking about drilling them out and running bolts through them to make manual ones out of those... I was going to do that but didn't have time to convert and did have a few extra bucks in cash so I just bought manual ones. (And they're blue so they match the bike )

jscobey

no im pretty sure hes talkin about the stopper mod which in all reality is a fail safe on the OEM ones. the stopper mod basically makes it so the CCT doesnt back out to far when it fails but its not a mnual CCt.

it still moves around just like it does stock. the manual ones put the same constant tension on the chain so the stopper mod is different

sorny

Oh sorry, I didn't realize there was another mod. I thought the manual mod was the only one there was.

VTR1000F

TAMPAHAWK68 is definitely talking about a full manual conversion as you can see in the picture included with his post that he has drilled out the OEM housing and replaced the plunger with a bolt.

The stopper mod, which I just learned about recently, works as jscobey describes. I just can't see doing it as it is still just as likely to fail, though it shouldn't grenade your engine if it does. I think the time is better spent doing some form of full manual mod.

jscobey

VTR1000F

I'm pretty confident TAMPAHAWK68 is not referring to running a bolt into the plunger, but, rather, replacing the plunger with a bolt. This turns the OEM ACCT into a MCCT. It's the same principal as an APE or Kreiger, just using the OEM housing instead of a hunk of billet.

I'm not familiar with the mod Tweety is talking about. The stopper mod uses a pin or collar to prevent the plunger slacking off to much if, no, when the spring breaks. If I read about the stopper mod correctly, that is. I admit I didn't spend a lot of time examining the stopper mod.

jscobey

i never actually heard of making the stock cct into a full manual one so im prolly totally wrong. ive only heard of the stopper mod.

the reason i bought APE CCT's is because with the stopper mod you still have to worry about them failing. you just dont have to worry about them destroying your engine.

of course i only find out about turning stockers into actualy manual CCT's on the day my APE's are supposed to arrive in the mail.

oh well at least the APE's are a little more blingy ;]

7moore7

Turning stockers into manuals is a great way to go, but there are a couple of downsides:

1) You do have to drill a decently straight hole and tap some threads into the stockers. Easier said than done, although it's not a precision machine process. Can be done with a hand drill, but can also be messed up with a hand drill (spoken from experience).

2) You have to source all of the parts and tools to do this. Bolts, taps, etc

3) You have added another step in the install process that takes quite a bit of time, and if you botch the conversion you're SOL until you get some other form of CCT in there.

I think the third one is biggest for a lot of people. This is a job that may people do with little experience. So tapping and threading a part that they don't entirely understand halfway through the install process doesn't usually sound appealing when the alternative is to spend 100 bucks. Especially for those people who only want the bike to be down for a day and already work slowly due to inexperience. But if you have an extra set, or are confident in your tool dexterity and mechanic experience, or have an alternative transportation if you mess the job up, the conversion of the stockers is awesome and I do think they look better.

sorny

Yeah #3 did it for me. I was like yeahhhh I will just spend the $100. I'm pretty cheap but it was definitely worth the $100 to not have to mess with the stockers. If it was $500 or more would've considered modifying them but I could save $100 pretty easily versus the time I'd have invested doing it the other way.

RobertLever