cam chain noise

[Guest]

I have a 1982 suzuki katana 1100cc. I have loud know that comes from the cam chain slap or at least I think it comes from that area. I decide to instal the manual tensioner to see if that will help quiet the motor down; when I tighten the APR tensioner the noise goes away but I can tell that the motor is too thight because it has a hard time idling when its too tight so I don't want to run it that way because it definetally is too tight but the noise does go away when I tighten the tensioner very tight. Can anyone tell me what the problem could be, are my guied worn out or is the chain worn out. I don't know how to get rid of the cam noise, it goes away when the motor is really hot, but sound like **** when it is cold.

[7981GS]

Have you spoken with RapidRay about it?

Eric

[Mekanix]

Just looking at page 7-18 of the 1100 manual my guess is that it could be the small guide that is part of the valve cover might be loose and slapping unless the chain is really tight and pushing up on it.


Or the bottom of the rear guide has come loose and its the bolt on the mount that is loose.


In between the cam sprockets and behind the crank sprocket are the two locations I see as most prone to slapping.


Just my opinion based on what I see in the manual and intuition.

Hope it helps.

[00.]

I will check those spots today, yes its kind of a weird noise, and it only goes away when I really tightent the cham. I will check the under the valve cover today, that might be the problem because I did swap valve covers from a different bike and it might not have that plastic part on there totaly forgot to check that.

[00.]

So, I cheked the valve cover and the guide is there, and looks perfect. I also checked the other two guides and they all look to be good but its hard to tell with the chain on. Is there anything I should look for when the valve cover is out???

[Mekanix]

I was thinking you could see if the rear guide moves up and down by loosening up the tenssioner and moving the chain out of the way enough to grab the guide and lift it.

Just to see if the bolt that holds it down has backed out or the bottom has failed in some way.

You might have to remove the intake cam to see, if just removing the tensioner doesn't give you the room to wiggle the guide around.


Besides that I'm not sure what It could be.

Keep an eye on your cam timing when your done or set it before loosening the tensioner. It could jump but its no big deal if you set it up again afterwards without turning the engine over.

[matt1100]

Mine is an 82 1100, not a kat though, it had a very similar noise after being "woke up" after sitting for about 8 yrs. Rebuilding the tensioner solved the "slapping". It still had a tick after that though. I read here that it could have been a frozen link in the chain where it sat under tension all those years. I do believe I found that link when I rebuilt the motor. It did not move as freely as the others. I replaced the chain, no more noise. Not a simple part to replace either. All my guides looked to be in excellent shape.

Good Luck

[00.]

So today I decided to take out the cams and check all of the plastic parts to see if they are cracked or if there is a kink in the cam chain. All the platics were in good condition there was no cracks on them and they were all fastened in place well. I found no kinks in the chain either. I also measured the cam chain acording to the book to see if the chain was streatched; the chain was no streatched and was well with in the correct specifications. I than decided to put everything together and I rechecked and readjusted some of the vlaves.

WHen I put the motor back toghether I decided to use my timing chain adjuster from my other 1100 suzuki gs. So I swaped out the timing chain adjuster and loosend the nut and checked to see if it has back lash on the spring, it all checked out good, and I decided that there is nothing else I could do to fix my rattle problem. Although I had little hopes of solving the problem.

But when I started up the bike, there was absolutely no noise, all the rattle sound went away, I started up my other 1100 gs suzuki with the other cam chain tensioner and that bike started to rattle so I know now that the cam chain tensioner was the problem. I think the spring is worn out on it. But I will get one from ebay to replace it. I'm just happy that I don't have any stupid rattle sounds coming out from my engine anymore. Supper happy.

I finaly took the bike out for a spin and it rode very nice but at full throttle it stumbled a bit but I figured out that I jetted the carbs for a 1000cc katana with 107.5 main jets so I will replace the mains with the gs1100 stock specification 115jets and I"m fairly sure I will have this thing running top notch,,, I took out the spark plugs and they were white so it is definetaly running a bit lean, so the 115 jets should do it. I'm soooo glad this restoration is about done and running good. Just wanted to let everyone know what solved my problem so if anyone has this problem they can fix it, as I have seen a lot of engine cam chain radle posts on this forum but no one ever post the solution to their problems so I never know if they got it solved or not. Also wanted to let everyone know that adjusting the cam tensioner properly is key, i have adjusted it inproperly before and it causes the same problem as I had with this bike, a lot of people keep the cam chain tensioner in service position and forget to realese the flat head bolt on the tensioner...

[7981GS]

Great news! Glad to hear that you don't hear it.

Eric