Gs1000 camshaft sprocket plastic chipped off

[Guest]

Once again I am in need of the infinite wisdom from the wonderful people on this site. I was doing the top end on my gs1000 and figured I would split the cases while I was at it to inspect everything and found a small piece of plastic in the oil pan. After searching and searching for the source I tracked it down to the plastic on the exhaust cam sprocket. The tip of it just chipped off at some point. So my question is what exactly are these plastic pieces doing and should I get a new/used sprocket or will it be just fine the way it is? I attached a photo and you can see the tip where it chipped off. Thank you for any insight.

-Shane

[azr]

Amazing you actually found where it went. I've never heard of this issue before but I'm curious to hear what everyone has to say. How does the rest of the plastic on the cams look/feel?

[howardshane2]

The rest of the plastic feels like it's attached solidly and there are no unusual wear marks to inidicate if it was rubbing or something to that affect. It's a clean break too.

[1980GS1000E]

I didn't know those were there. They aren't on my bike. Suffice to say that the destruction may continue and if a piece should get jammed in between a sprocket and chain, possible damage could result. If it were my bike, I would either replace or find a way to remove the plastic completely, maybe get different sprockets. The plastic must be there for noise abatement.

[GregT]

The plastic is there for noise/vibration damping. The occasional piece can crack off. It's not hard enough to do any damage in my experience.
Occasionally you're lucky enough to find a bit in the sump. Mostly it finishes up on the oil pump pickup screen where it does no harm.
On a race motor where you may be slotting the cam sprockets a long way, I usually remove all of it.Then redo the timing marks....
I wouldn't bother touching it in this case. Your call anyway.

[howardshane2]

The plastic is there for noise/vibration damping. The occasional piece can crack off. It's not hard enough to do any damage in my experience.
Occasionally you're lucky enough to find a bit in the sump. Mostly it finishes up on the oil pump pickup screen where it does no harm.
On a race motor where you may be slotting the cam sprockets a long way, I usually remove all of it.Then redo the timing marks....
I wouldn't bother touching it in this case. Your call anyway.

Awesome, thank you for the info.