this is more to be on the safe side than anything else. regular maintenance or so. after putting the new clutch in with ebc springs and new waterpump, the bike has seemed to develop a little bit of a rattle form the motor. not sure what it is, but im sure ill find it or just learn to ignore it along with the other sounds this thing makes. last winter the oem cam chain tensioners were replaced with manual units. since then i havent touched them, but i figured id adjust them now just incase theyve backed off or anything. better safe than sorry. so i did some reading through here and found this in the knowledge base


Adjust the main nut according to APE instructions: "Finger tight and 1/4 turn back and lock it in place with the locking nut -1/4"to 3/8" play " - for the hawk it's not practical to measure this play. On a side note: When I finger tight the bolt, it seemed to me to be a lot looser than the original OEM set up. Maybe I have weak fingers but it seems to be a little too loose for my liking, so I tightened it further with a wench where I felt comfortable. At this point, you're done with the rear cylinder. Put everything back in place and make sure you remove the plastic tie if you happen to follow my procedure of opening the cam cover.

thats just a cut and paste from the post about adjusting them. my question is, do i need to find tdc first before adjusting them?

 

Adjust them with the engine running and warm.

Back them off until you hear some noise from the cam chain, tighten it back up until the noise goes away and then tighten the lock nut.

Repeat on the other cylinder.

 

doing some more googling on this, can i just loosing the locking nut, start the bike and back it off a little until i hear it rattle, then tighten it till it goes away and snug it up from there, or does this need to be done with the engine off?

 

I'm adjusting mine right now. It seems the tighter I go the more the engine wants to die. Do I need.to up my idle screw? Pics of how far your mccts are adjusted?

 

If I had an expectation, I would expect the engine to run slower as you tighten and in fact that's the case. When you've adjusted to the right sound, you may have to adjust the idle up a bit.

 

Don't tighten any more! The cct's should not be putting any stress on the system- if you're bogging down your engine, it's far too tight. The purpose of the CCT is only to pick chain slack.

As 8541Hawk said, you should get them screwed in until you feel some resistance, then back them up until you hear rattling, then screw them in until the rattling goes away (all done when the motor is warm and running) the rattling is just the chain with a little play in it- because the CCT's are manual they won't back out any more or brake or give. If adjusted correctly, most motors will rattle a little bit when the it's cold, and as the parts expand from the heat the rattling goes away.

 

ha, well as i was adjusting my motor went CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH. hit me up in the pm or distortion11389@yahoo.com for parts lolz.

 

I installed apes on mine this weekend. Read and reread the info on here. Adjusted them as per directions. Still had a lot of rattle, so let the bike come up to operating temp and loosened the locking nut and adjusted them in untill the rattle went away.
So far so good.

 

haha looks like we both replied to my first post at the same time, thanks thats what i was figuring was the easiest way to do it.

thanks guys, this will become this weeks fun job

 

This is a disaster looking to happen. Too tight loads the drive can pull cams tight to one side of the bearing area. I won't say it can cause seizing since I can't prove it, but it sure as heck could contribute to it. Ignore whatever the OEM unit was like. They function differently.

As was said, adjust finger tight when cold, then back off a bit (I usually say 1/8 turn). If you want to fine tune it, run the engine until full operating temperature, break the lock nut loose, then back out until you hear the cam chain clicking, turn in until clicking goes away then lock it down.

The whole term "cam chain tensioner" is a total misnomer. The manual unit is a "cam chain adjuster". The only purpose is to take the play out of the chain, without putting any tension on it (perfect adjustment). Unfortunately since the chain is out of sight, the best that can be done is to use the general adjustment by hand when cold (which is usually sufficient) and fine tuning when hot if you want to do so. I've done it both ways.

One other thing some of us Kaw air cooled (cam drive in the center) riders have done is to use a mechanic's stethoscope to listen to the adjuster area for clicking. You can hear it easily and any ticking will be obvious. Heck, using it on the cam cover I can pick out the two valves in my bike that are out of spec by .001" to the loose side. Great tool for this sort of thing and only about $10 on ebay.

 

Whoa, really? This sounds cool... how tuned does you ear have to be?

 

What happened here? Were you screwing in or out or did it just start kissing valves to cylinder?

 

thanks for the pointers, good to know, ill have to find time this week to play with these. my buddy is a mechanic and has the stethescope. but ill be honest with you, my bike is so damn loud i dont think it would help me at all, lol