senseamidmadness
Neglected Bike Adopter
So a couple days ago I emailed Tom Cutter asking whether he's ever had any of these new tensioners fail, and got a very quick reply. He theorized that my tensioner piston, in sitting on the shelf for over 2 years, might have accumulated some rust on the check valve or in the piston body.
He also said that I should address the cam chain issue ASAP, so I did, in the easiest/cheapest/quickest way I had on hand: replacing it with the original tensioner.
My original tensioner was quite rusty around the top, so I decided to try out a couple new things. I used the fancy new brass wire brush my dad got for his bench grinder to take off all the rust, and then did a very basic hot bluing process to hopefully rustproof it for the near future. Heated it up with a propane torch until the head all glowed cherry red and then quenched in slightly-used motor oil. To the naked eye it doesn't look as bad as the picture.
Reinstalling the original tensioner did not completely eliminate the clattering noise on start-up, but it is now much quieter and lasts for a shorter time so it's an improvement. Previously I could hear it through my helmet and earplugs when starting up the bike from completely cold and now I can't.
I'll be reinstalling another upgraded tensioner as soon as I'm able to, or fixing the one I have.
I took a video of the noise with the original tensioner reinstalled if anybody wants to hear it. It certainly sounds to me like it's the left side of the engine but I'm inexperienced. https://youtu.be/GSIg34PV4ds
When I got the upgraded tensioner piston out, it was full of oil and impossible to push down as it had been before. Poking the ball valve allowed it to be pushed together and drained of oil as you'd expect. I'm honestly not sure what's wrong with it. Maybe it's slowly losing pressure over a few days? It does feel a bit "scratchy" when pushing it up and down without oil in it.
I have an idea or two as to how I could possibly fix the new tensioner piston, assuming it's rusted in some way; the easiest being to just soak it in brake parts cleaner to get it dry and then dunk it in Evapo-Rust for a few days. I'd rather try to repair it than drop $80+ on the replacement part, if I can.
He also said that I should address the cam chain issue ASAP, so I did, in the easiest/cheapest/quickest way I had on hand: replacing it with the original tensioner.
My original tensioner was quite rusty around the top, so I decided to try out a couple new things. I used the fancy new brass wire brush my dad got for his bench grinder to take off all the rust, and then did a very basic hot bluing process to hopefully rustproof it for the near future. Heated it up with a propane torch until the head all glowed cherry red and then quenched in slightly-used motor oil. To the naked eye it doesn't look as bad as the picture.
Reinstalling the original tensioner did not completely eliminate the clattering noise on start-up, but it is now much quieter and lasts for a shorter time so it's an improvement. Previously I could hear it through my helmet and earplugs when starting up the bike from completely cold and now I can't.
I'll be reinstalling another upgraded tensioner as soon as I'm able to, or fixing the one I have.
I took a video of the noise with the original tensioner reinstalled if anybody wants to hear it. It certainly sounds to me like it's the left side of the engine but I'm inexperienced. https://youtu.be/GSIg34PV4ds
When I got the upgraded tensioner piston out, it was full of oil and impossible to push down as it had been before. Poking the ball valve allowed it to be pushed together and drained of oil as you'd expect. I'm honestly not sure what's wrong with it. Maybe it's slowly losing pressure over a few days? It does feel a bit "scratchy" when pushing it up and down without oil in it.
I have an idea or two as to how I could possibly fix the new tensioner piston, assuming it's rusted in some way; the easiest being to just soak it in brake parts cleaner to get it dry and then dunk it in Evapo-Rust for a few days. I'd rather try to repair it than drop $80+ on the replacement part, if I can.
