.png "Powered by vBulletin")
The back story: last fall I bought a 1982 GSX750S Katana as is. It was running well but wouldn’t pass a safety (turn signals buggered up for one thing) so I borrowed a license plate from my other bike and rode it home. It was to be my winter project. It was in good condition but needed a deep cleaning and the maintenance due a 36 year old bike. So I tore it apart and cleaned it up, replaced a lot of parts, stripped/dipped the carbs, adjusted the valve clearances, etc. It’s now back together and I’m ready to get it safetied and on the road again.
One thing that sounded “off” to me when it was running was noise from the top end. I assumed that maybe it was because there are 16 valves slamming up and down in there and my old bike had 8. So I let it slide. Then I read a post from another member with a GSX750 experiencing top end noise that sounded similar to mine. He mentioned an issue with the cam chain tensioner, so I thought I’d dig into that. I did remove it over the winter but the plunger moved smoothly so I just reinstalled it. In retrospect I should have examined it more closely.
So tonight I dug out the manual and removed the tensioner again (with the carbs installed - a real pain in the butt). Upon closer inspection the tension spring didn’t look “right”. I wasn’t sure why exactly so I decided to disassemble the entire unit. As it it turns out, whomever disassembled it in the past reassembled it with the tension spring turned in the wrong direction - clockwise! That’s why the spring looked odd. The manual clearly states to turn the spring one full turn counterclockwise before tightening the nut. So I reassembled per the manual (one turn counterclockwise!) and reinstalled it, again per the manual.
It’s too late to start it up and make noise tonight so I’ll do it tomorrow after work. Maybe this will take care of the excess top end noise. I wonder how long it was running with the tensioner like that?
Anyhow, apologies for the novel. I was just very surprised to find this problem, and hopefully I’ve solved it!
One thing that sounded “off” to me when it was running was noise from the top end. I assumed that maybe it was because there are 16 valves slamming up and down in there and my old bike had 8. So I let it slide. Then I read a post from another member with a GSX750 experiencing top end noise that sounded similar to mine. He mentioned an issue with the cam chain tensioner, so I thought I’d dig into that. I did remove it over the winter but the plunger moved smoothly so I just reinstalled it. In retrospect I should have examined it more closely.
So tonight I dug out the manual and removed the tensioner again (with the carbs installed - a real pain in the butt). Upon closer inspection the tension spring didn’t look “right”. I wasn’t sure why exactly so I decided to disassemble the entire unit. As it it turns out, whomever disassembled it in the past reassembled it with the tension spring turned in the wrong direction - clockwise! That’s why the spring looked odd. The manual clearly states to turn the spring one full turn counterclockwise before tightening the nut. So I reassembled per the manual (one turn counterclockwise!) and reinstalled it, again per the manual.
It’s too late to start it up and make noise tonight so I’ll do it tomorrow after work. Maybe this will take care of the excess top end noise. I wonder how long it was running with the tensioner like that?
Anyhow, apologies for the novel. I was just very surprised to find this problem, and hopefully I’ve solved it!
I thought you were turning the spring around end to end to make a clockwise spring into an anti-clockwise one but that's impossible on this spring ! (even though a spiral, like a clock spring, can be reversed by flipping it over...argh)
Comment