Bike has about 3000 miles on it. Can hear a loud ticking around 5-8 rpms. Heard the timing chain is self adjusting but could it not be? Was told I could do it manually but don't understand the repercussions.

Also looking for a new CVK34, no the N424 model. Will trade my tm36-36 for the cvk34 and $100.

 

Welcome to the club, it sounds like the same noise alot of these bikes make. The adjuster is a weak link but in most cases you don't have to do anything as it will adjust from time to time but there have been horror stories when they fail altogether. A guy named Krieger that makes a manual one but I'm poor at links so you can search or some one else will chime in with the stuff.

 

I'm the guy - Mark Krieger - email me at mkrieger002@columbus.rr.com for more information on the tensioner. One of the guys here, TNC and I worked it out making the first one. Quite a few of them are quite literally around the world, including Thailand, Poland, and a variety of other countries.

Do not do the tensioning using the stock unit. It will actually overtighten the cam drive with the possibility of damaging the cam bearing surfaces. It will make the drive quiet, but it's like overtightening your drive chain - not good, not good at all.

The manual tensioner holds the adjustment where you adjust it. When the stock unit fails it isn't that it doesn't take up the slack, it actually moves in and out causing more play than a manual unit that would need adjusting. There are mechanical reasons why the OEM tensioner fails, based on what I've seen and what I know from an engineering stand point. A number of Kawasakis suffer from the problem.

When it comes to the adjustment of a manual unit it is fairly simple. Plus the fact that after the cam chain beds in the adjustments become long and far between. I have yet to adjust the tensioner on my own Zephyr 550 after over 10,000 miles. I had four adjustments, the first few close together, on my KLX650 after putting in new cam chains (it uses 2) after I had two OEMs fail and ruining the chains. The last adjustment was so long ago I forget when I did it.

When there is enough wear on the manual tensioner, there is a light ticking that you will hear when the bike is at full operating temps, no where near as bad as the failed OEM tensioner, but ticking none the less. At that point you readjust the tension.

The ideal tension is actually zero tension and zero play, but close is good here. One tooth on the stock tensioner is probably about 1mm (1mm tooth pitch). That is slightly less than one full turn on the M8-1.25 adjuster on my manual tensioner. I guarantee you will find it easy to adjust the manual unit to less than 1/4 turn accuracy, so it is much finer (actually infinitely adjustable) than the OEM unit which has to index one full tooth.

I hope this answers a few questions. I think there will be a few riders who use the tensioner who will verify my comments on the ease of using it... although the fine tuning adjustment, if you do it, is a bit hot due to the tensioner's location relative to the exhaust. We couldn't do much about that.

 

Mr. Krieger has many happy customers. IMHO, his manual cam chain adjuster is a vast improvement over stock, an easy mod, worth the price, and is the right way to go when (or before) the cam chain starts ticking.
Signed,
another happy customer
(no affiliation...just an honest review)

 

Yep, the Krieger adjuster got rid of the 5-6k RPM noise for me, whereas the OEM unit would not adjust it out. This sound was just a light ticking noise.

However, I also had another rattle at around 8k RPM; I discovered later that this one was/is my clutch lever rattling in its perch. This sound was like rattling/vibrating keys, very loud and very high frequency.

 

I'm going to buy the manual one. I think mine works as is but it makes alot of noise, actually it gets louder and louder then goes away for awhile and starts comming back again. I think it works but I agree if you could buffer out all of that and not have the chain over tight would be ideal.

 

i adjusted my stock one and 8000 miles later it works great. u just adjust it 1 notch and thats perfect. i did it 3 or 4 notches the first time and that was definatley to much. i dont see how it can move in and out like you say. you would be able to hear the cam chain getting tighter and looser. just because sometings suppose to be automatic doesnt mean it cant be adjusted. just my 2 cents..

 

You ever see the shifter dogs on a bike that pops out of gear? They look normal, except the edges are rounded and polished, causing the dog to angle enough to pop out of gear. The teeth on the ratchet rack get rounded as does the pawl, enabling the rack to push back (cam drive deceleration) and forth (the spring) rounding the edges.

As for your adjustment, that's a lot like overtightening your drive chain. Sure, the chain won't be loose, but something's gonna get damaged. In the drive line it will be the countershaft bearing, cush hub bearing, or the chain and sprockets. In the cam drive it will wear the cam chain, slider shoe, and possibly pull the cams tight enough that it may break the oil film in the plain cam bearing surface (machined part of the head) causing wear and possible siezure. Overtightening any chain has consequences. If that wasn't the case I'd think Kawasaki would have put a really beefy spring in that adjuster body to push in hard enough to keep the chain extra tight now wouldn't they.

If those consequences weren't real I wouldn't have had to have two OEM tensioners replaced on the KLX, nor would I have ended up having a top end rebuild courtesy of the crap OEM design. If it wasn't mechanical reality I wouldn't have done anything about it. The primary drive on the in-line four air cooled bikes rattles, but there's no mechanical consequences to speak of, so I don't bother doing anything about it.

As for hearing the cam chain problem, what do you think that rattle is?... The Keebler Elves? That is the cam chain slapping about when the tensioner is pushed back far enough to allow up to 2-3mm of play as it moves back and forth over two or three teeth (as I saw on my second OEM tensioner rack). There have been cases where the cam timing has jumped due to that slack. Fact is the tensioner on my Zephyr would actually occasionally work and run quiet for a little bit. So yes, you do hear it getting tight and loose. After all, it is happening up to 2000 times a minute when the bike is running at 4000 rpm. THAT is that rattle you hear. The constant in and out, the constant slap of the chain as it does so.

You know, your valves don't make noise either if you adjust them too tight, but there are consequences there too. Don't believe for a minute you aren't creating the potential for problems by preloading the cam drive with up to 1mm preload on the chain slider. It may be quiet, but it will cause at least premature wear. A rider not understanding the mechanical reality does not keep it from happening.

If you contacted Kawasaki and asked if your method of adjustment should be done I kind of doubt they'd recommend it and likely tell you not to do it. If the tensioner was supposed to be able to be adjusted, wouldn't they have put the mechanism on it to adjust it?

With a manual tensioner we are getting adjusment accurate to within less than 1/8 turn of an M8-1.25 bolt which is .156 mm or about .007". Compare that to your adjustment of at least 1/2 the tooth pitch of the rack, my guess on the pitch is at least 1mm. That is like setting a manual tensioner then turning it in nearly one full turn too far. In addition, the manual setting is a positive setting, with the lock nut tight, the adjustment stays put.

Not just my 2 cents, but mechanical reality.

 

Well stated, Mark. It's a given that our KLX auto-tensioner system is often lacking with some disturbing frequency. But I still wonder why. The design of our tensioner is basically similar to many other Kawasaki tensioner systems in many of their other bikes that seem to have no problem at all. It makes you wonder what happened on the KLX250/300. It must be the placement of the two tensioners (one auto and one just spring forced) or maybe it's the way the guide blocks are designed...or a combination thereof. The manual tensioner certainly does the trick, but there must be some aggressive kickback or pressure on the guide blocks that's overcoming the auto-tensioner's ability to hold position and perhaps resulting in the excess wear on the rack teeth. Mark, in your study of the systems for which you've had to make the manual solution, have you had any observations that seem to indicate the culprit in those designs? This ratchet tensioner seems to be practically identical to several other Kawasaki model applications that work fine. What do you think might be going on that challenges the ratchet in our problematic models? Your manual tensioner has been anvil simple and tough, but I'm just curious why this similar auto-tensioner in some other models seems to function just fine.

 

The stock unit isn't perfect, but trying to jury rig it to be something is not is a bad idea in my mind.

Hopefully soon i can get around to ordering one of Mr. Krieger's tensioners for the KLX.

I don't suppose you make one for my 6R as well ?