Cam Chain Extenders

[Shardy]

Read but don't understand how to make sure cylinders are in compression stroke. Is this really a necessary concern?

[dshelly]

That depends. Do you feel lucky? well do ya? If you don't and the chain jumps a tooth you'll have a lot more work to do.

Compression stroke: Piston up and all valves closed. You can remove the spark plug tube and see if the mark on the cam gear is aligned with the timing mark, you'll need a flashlight.

[chuckster131]

Never done that ever.. just bring the bike in , shut it off and do the install.. all is good:-)

[Cajunrider]

To get the inside bolt in, I put a little grease on the short side of the allen wrench and held the bolt with the wrench to get it stabbed. Ball end allen wrenches make the front tensioner much easier.

[Puddlejumper]

May not be necessary to be on compression stroke, but after reading where a couple guys had problems after installing the extenders, wanted to be as sure as possible. An old saying "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure", in some cases could very well hold true. I am confident once I have the extenders in, my excess noise should be gone. I do appreciate all the knowledge and advice you get from you folks on this forum. It is a great help with the maintance projects concerning the Kawasaki Nomad bikes. Thanks all.

[yoda]

Originally Posted by chuckster131

Never done that ever.. just bring the bike in , shut it off and do the install.. all is good:-)

That's what I did. Seemed to work for me, so I guess I was just lucky.

[ndbigfish]

Originally Posted by chuckster131

Never done that ever.. just bring the bike in , shut it off and do the install.. all is good:-)

This is the method that I used and its been fine and I have no luck. Just don't move the bike during the install. I'll have another Nomad to do and will probably use the same method.

[dave m]

Originally Posted by chuckster131

Never done that ever.. just bring the bike in , shut it off and do the install.. all is good:-)

same here and no problem

[dshelly]

So I guess the real question here is... do you know how to re-time it just in case is does move? I usually don't rely on luck when I'm working on something. To each his own.

[Puddlejumper]

Tensioner extenders installed. All is well. Motor running nice and quiet now. Sounds a whole lot better. Thanks for all the info. and advice. A special thanks to Joe for his quick turn around on the extenders.

[rickyboy]

Ask Tomm,....He ended up craking the case open if I remember correctly. I was lucky and didn't have any problems.

[Txtac]

Sounds like a fun one. I bought mine with 33k miles. Is there a way to check if this is needed? The guy I bought mine from never heard about this, neither did the Kawi Shop, which the guy had all his service done at.

[degreaser]

A way to check if cam chain tensioner extenders are needed is to remove the spark plug tubes and have a look to see if the cam chain is making rubbing and scratch marks on the tubes, without extenders and left as is the chain will eventually stretch and make a hole in the spark plug tube causing engine oil to seep into the spark plug cavity. To remove the spark plug tube for checking, buy a short 27mm hex bolt and 2 nuts and a 27mm box wrench, jamp the 2 nuts on the end of the bolt and use the hex head of the bolt to remove the tubes, there's an o-ring on the end of the tubes

[rickyboy]

I posted this link in the other recent cam chain thread.
http://vulcanbagger.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27964
It might help you. I haven't heard of anyone else running into trouble like "tomm" did but like has been said before, ...you have to ask yourself..... ....do I feel lucky?.....well do you punk ??

[tomm]

Originally Posted by redjay

I bought new gaskets and o rings and tightened the bolts by "feel". No need to reef on them. Blue loctite.

Originally Posted by rickyboy

I posted this link in the other recent cam chain thread.
http://vulcanbagger.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27964
It might help you. I haven't heard of anyone else running into trouble like "tomm" did but like has been said before, ...you have to ask yourself..... ....do I feel lucky?.....well do you punk ??

That may not be true anymore Rickyboy. There could be two of us now.

http://www.vulcanbagger.com/forums/s...ad.php?t=33202

I chatted with Bill over the phone, and his symptoms are very similar to mine. I'll be very interested in what he finds when he pulls the rocker case.