Greetings all!

My bike has always had a little bit of timing chain "rattle". It's not real bad ... certainly not the "rocks in a coffee can" noise I see described on this forum once in a while ... just a mild "clacking". This morning, I fired up my bike to let it warm up as I do every morning, and when I pushed the choke back in, the bike dropped to idle and the timing chain noise disappeared. The bike seemed to run fine on my way in to work this morning, but it's quieter than it's ever been before. I don't think it was this quiet when it was new!

I'm assuming that the timing chain tensioner took up some slack or something, but there's this nagging fear that something is wrong in there. Any validity to this, or am I just worrying for no reason?

 

Well, something's a little wrong in that the tensioner wasn't doing its job...at least not doing its job fully. At some point apparently the ratchet in the tensioner did slide forward enough to take up the appropriate slack and quieten the chain. As time goes by the tensioner may slip back a tooth on the ratchet or just fail to move forward properly to maintain chain tension with wear. Who knows. This is why many of us use the manual tensioner that Mark, klx678, designed for the KLX. My bike was used as the test bed. Your tensioner may function just fine at this point...and it may not. It's not an unusual occurrence. Many here have experienced inconsistent performance of the OEM tensioner.

 

Normal. I wished I had an audio recorder running when my stock adjuster finally did it's thing. VERY dramatic change. I now have the manual adjuster.

 

OK, so I guess no noise is good, but the fact that there was any in the first place is bad. Looks like I'll add a manual tensioner to my wishlist just to be on the safe side.

Thanks all!

 

And Mark's manual tensioner is relatively inexpensive.

 

Er....when the tensioner noise goes away....it's gonna blow up.

(just kidding.)

 

And very easy to install and adjust. And the peace of mind that it won't let loose and blow the top end, priceless!

 

Hi! Mark here...

Quiet is good, but not because there is no noise. TNC had the same thought I did. There was enough wear on the chain to get the tensioner to seat into the next notch without overtightening of the chain (which is what happens when someone forces the issue). You are good.

The good thing here is that if it holds and remains good you are good. The other good thing should it not remain good is that the failure of the Kawasaki tensioner is progressive - it gets worse as it runs longer. Why is that good you may ask? It means tensioner failure is not instantly catastrophic, at least not that I've ever heard of. You have at least a thousand miles of riding to take care of it. You don't have to park the bike while waiting to get a replacement. Just don't go a couple thousand, that may damage the sliders and excessively wear the chain.

Have fun riding with confidence you won't blow it up if the tensioner does slip again. You just know you need to fix it if it does.

Later...


By the way, it's good to hear the parts are still treating you guys right. It's been fun and interesting doing this stuff. This is one of the few forums I still take time to hit when I can. I have become a gardener since my wife and I got our house - damn landscape!

Seems I can always be weeding, trimming, or mowing - which I genuinely dislike. She was supposed to help! I've been on the street bike like five times, the dual sport maybe six. The dual sport got more riding time because it is a special trip up where I keep it and I've had a couple weekends where I've done two days goofing off.

Of course we hit a run where it was raining almost every day due to the heat causing pop up showers and there was a run of high temp/humidity days making it rather miserable to be out and about.

I'm hoping I develop enough ability to become more efficient and the weather cooperate enough to get more riding time next summer. I WILL get out for some of the beautiful fall foliage here in Ohio this October!

 

Just as easily as your tensioner quieted the chain, it can make it noisy. In my case, I had a silent chain and then after a particularly long and harsh desert race (the D100) I had a nasty cam chain tick.

I have Mark's tensioner in there now and the engine is once again quiet like a sewing machine. I had a hard time adjusting it though since it never seemed to get really loud. Trust the directions, finger tight cold and then back off 1/2, and ride.

 

Yeah, it's eerily quiet now. It also warms up much faster, and holds idle at lower rpm than it used to. I guess the chain was so loose that it was fudging timing a bit. Sheesh.

Thanks again for all the input and advice, everyone!