I'm interested!

 

I'm interested.

 

Interested here in UK - have a friend's '98 storm that needs a set

 

After getting an email from John I figured it would be good to be here as a member to answer any questions anyone might have and just to occasionally hang out. I did the same with the Eliminator group (ZL-OA forum) and even met up with some of them at Mid Ohio Vintage Days last year. I look forward to seeing them there again this year. Maybe see some of you guys if you go to either Vintage Days or the Superbike weekend. I'm not there selling anything, I'm there for the races. The bikes are the fun for me, the tensioners are a sideline that grew a bit. But it still occurs in my single stall garage.

I am open for email and PMs on this forum and hope my little project can be of help for some of you at a fair price. I will mention the OP was off by about a buck on the shipping. The kit will be $65 as said, but shipping is USPS flat rate priority at $5.20 US, $11.95 Canada, and $13.95 for the rest of the world. To give a bit of assurance, I've sold probably about 50-60 tensioners to the UK and probably about 30-40 to Australia. So I'm open to about anyone any place. The interesting fun ones were to Serbia, Thailand, Latvia, Poland, Malaysia, and Singapore. The rider in either Singapore or Malaysia had me work out for him to get an FCR Kehin and a Walmart seat cover to him since the shop with the carb wouldn't ship out of the US.

Kind of fun. Did an ebay deal to a mate in Australia, who eventually came to the US to pick up some flat trackers to ship back. That's some of the perks of playing with the motorcycles for me.

Again, I hope all are okay with me here.

 

Those tensioners look nice- Really like the effort to put the flat socket cap screws in. I'd be in if I didn't already have a set.

 

I will purchase a set.

 

They do look good. nice attention to detail. I would get a set but last year I bought the poor fitting/leaking set from Rider On A Storm(not advised)...paid more for them, then had to buy gaskets, which from your picture I assume you include the gaskets?

 

Yes, gaskets in. When I decided to sell them for the KLX and Zephyr to the guys in the Zephyr-Zone and the Yahoo KLX650 group I decided to make the kit the way I'd want it. That includes the gasket and a couple of stickers. I wouldn't want to buy the item then have to go order a gasket, I want the stuff right there in front of me. I started originally including the proper hex key wrench, but then figured it was overkill.

It's all been fun with minimal profits, but it pays a bill or two and gives guys a choice. The pricing was kind of figured on how far out of the way a guy would go to make one himself in the garage, based on my own experience. The first few were quite literally hand cut and drilled - if it was still that way I'd not be doing this.

I was actually ready to buy an APE unit for the Zephyr, but the supplier wouldn't check to see if the GPz550 unit had enough bolt reach and APE didn't bother getting back with me on having the same done or one with a longer bolt made, in spite of having all the dimensional information. I was ready to pay their price. They didn't do anything so I did and the rest is kind of history.

The whole thing came about with my trying to keep the 20 year old Zephyr going. I knew cam chain noise from the KLX. I had the first one on the KLX go bad at 5000 miles, replaced it with an OEM. Then had that one go bad at around 12,000 miles. I listened to the guys on the KLX forum that said "KLXs are noisy engines." and continued riding it. What a mistake. It cost me about $400 for the top end tear down to replace the destroyed cam chains. The only benefit was when the mechanics who were doing the work (I sold bikes at the shop and could make the money to pay for the work, which would get done faster than my doing it in my spare time) found a Vulcan 1500 piston and stuck it on the wrist pin from my 650. Suffice it to say I did the measurements and took the chance - KLX678 with more power everywhere. But I digress...

When I bought the Zephyr 550 it sounded like a hornets net under the tank. Same response on the Zone - "They're all noisy, it won't hurt anything." With my KLX experience no way was I buying that. Noise is like pain - it's God's way of telling you something's most likely wrong, so fix it. I did, instant quiet. No adjustment in 8000 miles on it, chain was seated in and running with little change - as a HyVo chain should. There is still the primary chain noise, but that is noise that does not indicate a problem on the Zephyr. I will tell people if it ain't broke don't fix it, like the Concours riders who don't have cam chain noise, but if it is noisy don't believe it's normal, fix it. I will say it sounds like that might not be the case with the front tensioner on the Superhawk/Firestorm though, running dry. That might be a case for all being fine, but catastrophic failure when it doe let loose. The Kaws are progressive and sometimes intermittent. They can be ridden a few thousand miles before the damage is done.

Since I'm some guy in a single stall garage, with a bit of mechanical engineering knowledge, I don't have any advertising budget, I don't have the extra cash to advertise - student loans for the wife and kids - so it is all via forums like this one. That's why few have heard of me outside a few forums. But oh how those forums work...

It is interesting and fun to be in contact with people around the world. So far it's 17 countries with the bulk of overseas going to the UK and Australia. Totally mind boggling and incredible.

I've got a link in my signature - and I do appreciate the forum allowing that - as well as taking email from the site. I look forward to communicating with any of you guys on this whole thing. I have about a half dozen forum thread references from the Concours, Kawasaki Forums, Kawasaki Motorcycles, and Eliminator Owners (ZL-OA) that pertain to the parts I've made. They're mainly Kawasaki because I own two Kaws (no preference, just the look I wanted and I couldn't find a r/w/b 86 Nighthawk S at the time I got the 550) and those are the guys who asked about them. Now one of the members here asked and I've done the deal. I look forward to helping anyone with their tensioner problems and appreciate any support after they find how the parts work.

 

By the way, yes I am "long winded" when writing on forums. I'm a bit the same when in casual conversation. Just the way I am.

 

One thing to pass on to him:

Because the rear one is bathed in oil internally, oil seeping past the threads of the main bolt can be an issue.

APE addressed this with a o-ring between the body & the locking nut, TruckinDuc (when he was around and making them) used an oil sealing washer for the same purpose, and people who purchased the old APEs (pre o-ring) tend to fix it with a dab of silicone glue before tightening it down lol.

 

I put the O-ring in the first time around, because the conversion one I did for my KLX oozed a bit of oil. Having worked in a hydraulic cylinder repair shop as a repair draftsperson it immediately came to mind when I made the one for my Zephyr and the rest. Now I've added a Viton O-ring in place of the neoprene one because it's good for about 400+ degrees where the neoprene was around 250 degrees. Not likely to melt the neoprene, but why not be positive. Then I used a jam nut/acorn on the end to allow disassembly to replace the seal should it ever need replaced - again, just being sure. Hopefully no need for silicone goo.

 

The o-ring doesn't seal very well on the threads and usually fails. Lots of posts on the site about this. Non hardening thread sealant is best. Seal it once and never have to worry about it again.

 

I'll take a set also. I was just getting ready to order a set next week.

 

When the volume of space in the sealing area is actually less than the volume of the O-ring material it should seal by compression. I had one leak on a bike in the UK, sent him a new one and directions on how to repair the other one. The one thing I didn't do was actually work out the volume of the area enclosed versus the O-ring, when I did I found that I was too close to inadequate... my bad. Should have done the math at the outset. I've cut back on the depth now and try to keep it right. I've not heard back about the new one leaking and his was one of only two comments on leakage. The other was light weeping that would moisten the bolt thread and hold dirt, no actual drip.

But it can happen and I'm not perfect. Although I just went out and checked the one on the Zephyr and got dirt, but no oil on my finger. I think the KLX does let a light film out though, but no drip.