hawking

By all means, be hard on me! I appreciate you giving a ****. I thought it would be easy to get just right by ear, but if ~6mm is the stock tension that will ensure greatest engine longevity, I am absolutely willing to take some more time and do it that way. Can always easily adjust by ear once the play is set to 5-7mm anyway, if something seems amiss

BTW, is it 5-7mm TOTAL play, or 5-7mm of play in either direction of chain movement? I think it's 5-7 TOTAL, based on the VTR1000.org thread, but just want to double check.

hawking

Finally got the time to pull both valve covers this morning and adjust/measure the timing chain tension. I set it to about 7mm (measured pushing hard on the chain up and down, figured it's better to be on the loose side than the tight side). I put everything back together and went for a ride, and the tension is definitely too slack. Lots of chain noise. Having taken the visual measurement, I know things are within safe tolerance, but I will fine tune my adjustment by ear later today to get the chain noise dialed down.

Having been through this whole process, I think I'd skip pulling both valve covers and measuring chain tension if I had to do it all over. Unless there's another reason to pull the covers (unsure about TDC exhaust or power stroke, need to check valves, etc.), I think it's more trouble than it's worth. I think the measurement method, while appearing to be an exacting, be-all & end-all method at first, ends up looking different in practice. For instance, when judging the chain play, how hard should one push/pull the chain in each direction to achieve an accurate measurement? One gets different measurement results depending on the pressure applied, so to really discuss the 5-7mm accurately, this needs to be quantified and taken into account. Without it, the measurement enters the same nebulous territory as the "by ear" method. That said, I would say that the 5-7mm method is as good a starting point as (and maybe better than) the "finger tight, then back off 1/4 turn" method, and I'm glad I went through this whole process for learning purposes, even though I'll be finishing the job by ear.

Others' mileage may vary on CCT adjustment methods, but I want to add my specific experience to the opinion pool, and am happy to discuss further. There is obviously a lot of info floating around about this, yet it still seems to be a mysterious art...