Just installed my Krieger Manual Cam Chain Tensioners. Nice quality and well thought out. Checked valve adjustment while I was at it and no changes needed. Now I got to make a carb synch tool.

 

No pics? What kind of a thread is that?

Also, is this forum becoming advertisement-heavy?

 

I don't know, I use adblock (works with Firefox & chrome)

 

I figured out what happened, I somehow wasnt logged in so ads galore.

 

well it happened to me, yesterday my cam chain failed.

 

tough luck buddy, mine went last year on the forecourt of the garage when i was in for for my MOT (ministry of transport) annual test. i was away on holiday 3 days later and the garage guy said he could do the work with the test for an extra 100 quid and i could ride it away the next day. it seemed easy to get him to do it there and then so i did. on reflection i think i should have looked into the manual cct route ??!!

its done a couple of 1000s mile since then and not misseda beat.

when will it go againthough????????

anyone reckon its true that idling it on the sidestand from cold is a problem?

 

Coincidentally fitted a pair of Krieger's CCTs to a friends VTR this afternoon - all went smoothly in the sunshine and any potential catastrophe avoided so many thanks Mark!

Quite a few superstitious rumours that float around (coloured dots etc. ) but a local chap (up Witham way) who collect's old VTR CCTs and converts them to manuals suspects from poking around in to the internals that the spring in the front one due to its position is oil free which somehow causes it to degrade and eventually break (the spring gradually exfoliates) . Rear ones very rarely break and the same design works fine on other Hondas Fours where there is sufficient oil reaching the internals.

 

I was thinking you meant advertisement-heavy as in people advertising products for sale outside the clasified forum, and people leaving feedback outside the feedback forum.

 

I'm guessing the different colored dots on the cct's denote different shifts or operators during manufacturing. We use similar methods to track quality problems in our Mexico facility.

 

OUCH!

A kid here a few miles from me had his fail when out riding. He was quite fortunate though. Nothing damaged, just a lot of noise. Put in manual tensioners and all worked well.

I hope you are as fortunate as he is.

Glad to see Wicky finally got those in a bike. That was like set #1 and if I remember for your friend from the Mediterranian area right?

It still kind of freaks me out that this catastrophic failure occurs. I told the parts guy at the Honda dealership where I used to work, about it. He has a friend with a Superhawk. Absolutely amazing. I wonder if there is some relationship to failure based on riding style and storage. A rider who rides the bike long enough to really get it warm all the time gets the moisture evaporated out of the bike, then keeps it in a garage with a relatively constant temperature might not have the issue occur as readily, since there could be less condensation in the engine. I mean there has to be a reason for the corrosion to occur at differing times for different riders. Some apparently do near six figure mileage without issue, while others have failure at less than 10,000. An interesting thought.

There is a similar mileage of failure thing with the ratchet systems on some bikes, but it has to do with machine tolerance stacking and incremental adjustment on a dynamic wear part.

 

i heard about the lack of oil to the front cct thing . my garage is on quite a steep slope which i have to ride into , so my worry is that the oil is less likely to get to the front than normal??!!

any way they can be lubricated manually??

 

By the nature of the v-twin front pot CCT angle and position it seems not to get a drop of oil. (Rear manuals sometimes get an oil leak through the bolt if not loctited but never heard of front one having the same problem). If you're worried the best thing to do is install fail-safe manual tensioners and be done with OEM CCT Russian Roulette.

 

Some possible solutions to avoid putting in manual tensioners...

Do lots of stoppies as high as you can get them!

Only ride down hill... real steep down hill!

Take the tensioner out and oil it up at each oil change.

Get one of those capped lube pots like there are on like train car wheels and stuff, but in a miniature size and put it on.

Get a Scott's Chain Oiler, mount it on the head set and run a line down to the tensioner, put in motor oil, and let 'er drip!


Anyone else got an idea?

 

Cheers Mark - Eventually got em fitted at long last for my friend (not Mediterranean, more Lincolnshire Sausage) - I'll tell her she got a bespoke limited edition - fine vintage CCTs that will work even in zero gravity... :-)