how long after cam tensioner extenders?

[ossienomad]

Hi all

I fitted chucksters cam chain extenders at around 80,000 kilometers (about 50 ooo miles) and all is good. No damage or wear on plug tubes.

Was just wondering how much extra life I can hope to get before cam chains have to be replaced.

How many miles have you managed to clock up on a nomad. Mine is 2008 vulcan nomad.

I have heard that these bikes will do 100000 miles but am yet to hear from any one that has achieved this.

My concerns with cam chain extenders are

- the chain keeps stretching and eventually timing will go out.
- Chain may reach its limit and break.

I have my dealer check timing in belief that if all is well with timing then the chains cant be too far stretched. If I'm right about this then all I need to know is how likely is it that a chain could eventually break causing major damage.

I've asked chusckster the same thing and to date have not got reply but will let you know what he says.

Would be keen to hear from you all.

Also keen to hear from any one that made move from nomad to voyager. How do the two compare? How far do you go on a drive belt.

Thanks mark.

[redjay]

I went from a 2005 Nomad to a 2010 Voyager. gv550 on this forum has over 200,000 on his 2009 Voyager. Cant answer your question re how long the 1600 cam chain will last before they need replacing. I have never heard of one breaking.

[ossienomad]

Re my last post I did receive the following reply from chuckster.


Hi Mark

I have only heard of one person that actually had a chain problem, and that was a chain failure that broke. These engines once the extenders are installed will go well over the 100,000 mile mark. I sold my 01 with 65,000 miles and its still going strong as ever.

[MAS Tequila]

My engine has over 120000 miles on it.

Extenders are in there and no problems yet.

I just rode it down the interstate from Charlotte to Boca Raton in November. 75-80 all the way, no excess noises or issues.

MT

[ossienomad]

Nice to hear that their are quite a few out there with over 100000 miles. Makes mine still a baby.

[degreaser]

I would be curious to know the construction of the cam chain and how it's made, does the link pivots have plastic joints and wears thin and that's why the chain stretches? Or are those link pivots metal to metal with a new chain

[roadhawg]

Friend of mine has a Vulcan classic 1500 all stock, with around 110K miles with only routine maintenance,
No cam extenders. no nothin, and it still runs like new!

[Byron]

i changed cam chains on two bikes i,ve had a honda 550-4 and a yahama 850 tripple

each one was changed with just removing the head cover looping a solid wire to the chain and feeding it, then attach new chain and feed it back.
not sure if it could be done with these but i don't see y not

[degreaser]

Does Gadget's Vulcan site have anything on cam chain replacement?

[degreaser]

Tear it up, fix it, repeat
Down the page somewhere is the cam chain

http://tearitupfixitrepeat.blogspot....aultvml-o.html

[MAS Tequila]

Originally Posted by Byron

i changed cam chains on two bikes i,ve had a honda 550-4 and a yahama 850 tripple

each one was changed with just removing the head cover looping a solid wire to the chain and feeding it, then attach new chain and feed it back.
not sure if it could be done with these but i don't see y not

You're dreaming.

To change the cam chains the engine has to come out of the frame. PERIOD

The top half of the head has to be removed, you CANNOT do this with the engine in the bike. PERIOD

MT

[trosco]

Those that know me would call me a bit obsessive about the care of my bikes. The wear pattern on our cam chains was one of my obsessions. I started checking the positions of the two extenders (have a self made right side only intake and no crossover tube which made checking easy) at 20,000 miles. Both extenders were 2/3 fully extended at 20K. Thought I'd have to do the repair by 30K but at 30K only 2 more clicks used on each extender, so went to 40K and was down 1 more on each.

I went ahead at 45,000 miles and put the new feet on the extenders even tho no further stretch had occured (still had 2 clicks left on front and 1 click left on rear before fully extended). I was leaving on a extended trip and didn't want to do the job in a motel parking lot.

But here is my opinion. Our chains don't stetch as much as they "wear in" durring the first 20,000 miles but that "wearing in" process uses up about 70% of the tensioner's range. Then a rate of stretch/wear that would indicate a chains life expectancy of about 150,000 miles is what we expereance. That 150,000 mile life is pretty close to consistent with other motors of our era that use internally located oil bath cam drive chains.

Kaw offeres the replacement extender feet as normal maint items outside the US (Canada for example) so I think they recognize that situation as one that can be addressed simply and inexpensively but the abundance of Lawyers suing mfgr's in the US make them opt for earlier obsolesence vs these type maint. items of their vehicles here.

I know of a dozen Nomads and Vulcan Classics that are well past 100,000 with no problems and 2 of them are aproaching 200,000. I figure that if I still have my 07 when it hits 150,000 I will go thru the drive train but that is because of how anal I am about maintaining my bikes, not because I expect problems by then.

[degreaser]

I'm at 35,000 miles with Chucksters extenders installed, I'm not afraid to attempt to install new cam chains if I could have help getting the motor off the bike and to a work area. I would also need detailed instructions and if someone is going to do a new cam chain install, it might be nice to post details of the job with pictures to follow.

[ossienomad]

Thanks to all who have answered. There arent too many nomads in Australia and dealers generally are not familiar with them so its great to get all your feed back.

Trosco, your observations of the chains are almost identical to what occured with mine. Same miles etc before chain extenders fitted. I too still had some travel left on original tensioners and the stretch did appear to slow down once they got to last click or two. I had no wear on spark plug tubes when I changed tensioners.

One thing that did happen after I removed the plug tubes was that the original O rings failed on rear cylinder. It resulted in a slight but annoying weep of oil which appeared to be coming from gasket at rear of cam chain extender. After a bit of trial and error i managed to isolate the leak, replaced the O rings on the plug tubes and all was fine.

Based on your replys I'm going to settle in and clock up another 80 000 kilometers. For you blokes in the states that will take my bike out to 100,000 miles. By then I might have the engine pulled and give it a good overhall. I'll pick up a new bike for me maybe a voyager and put the nomad aside for my son. They are obviously built to last!

[ponch]

Originally Posted by trosco

Those that know me would call me a bit obsessive about the care of my bikes. The wear pattern on our cam chains was one of my obsessions. I started checking the positions of the two extenders (have a self made right side only intake and no crossover tube which made checking easy) at 20,000 miles. Both extenders were 2/3 fully extended at 20K. Thought I'd have to do the repair by 30K but at 30K only 2 more clicks used on each extender, so went to 40K and was down 1 more on each.

I went ahead at 45,000 miles and put the new feet on the extenders even tho no further stretch had occured (still had 2 clicks left on front and 1 click left on rear before fully extended). I was leaving on a extended trip and didn't want to do the job in a motel parking lot.

But here is my opinion. Our chains don't stetch as much as they "wear in" durring the first 20,000 miles but that "wearing in" process uses up about 70% of the tensioner's range. Then a rate of stretch/wear that would indicate a chains life expectancy of about 150,000 miles is what we expereance. That 150,000 mile life is pretty close to consistent with other motors of our era that use internally located oil bath cam drive chains.

Kaw offeres the replacement extender feet as normal maint items outside the US (Canada for example) so I think they recognize that situation as one that can be addressed simply and inexpensively but the abundance of Lawyers suing mfgr's in the US make them opt for earlier obsolesence vs these type maint. items of their vehicles here.

I know of a dozen Nomads and Vulcan Classics that are well past 100,000 with no problems and 2 of them are aproaching 200,000. I figure that if I still have my 07 when it hits 150,000 I will go thru the drive train but that is because of how anal I am about maintaining my bikes, not because I expect problems by then.

Qdog or Quinton Grubb put over 250K miles on his 2003 Nomad. IIRC, his chains started sawing through the spark plug tubes at 165K miles. He had the extended warranty on the bike, but cam chains aren't covered. In fact no chains are covered...Anyway, I think he replaced the tubes, put the extenders in and flushed the motor. For the first 4 years, he put 50K a year on it. That's a lot of riding.