Cam Tensioners and chains

[SHOtimer]

Is their a mileage that these commonly fail or wear out? Or are they more like rod bearings, where some never fail and some to early?

I am getting ready to drop a 132k motor into my SHO, that is impecable internally. The tensioners move freely up and down, and the chains don't seem to be stretched. I have brand new tensioners and chains, but I don't want to install them if I don't have to because I can pay off the price of this motor by selling them.

I am inclined to install the new tensioners and chains, so I know they are new, but i am doubting that it would be practical if the ones in there arn't problematic.

So, if they are fine should I at least replace the chains, or just leave well enough alone and sell the new tensioners and chains that I have?

 

[Bizzy]

take the tensioners out and clean them out. the reason they fail is because of a little check ball and spring that get a little gunk in there. They come apart really easily, and clean up very quick with some berrymans. I think the only time to replace them is when the pads are worn way down. My brother's car with 340K on it had tensioners with virtually no wear to the plastic pad.

 

[bulldogs3d]

were did you find the new tensioners i'm looking for some myself

 

[Rockledge]

If you are going to be keeping your SHO for a while, then you might as well put the new chains and tensionsers on the "new" engine that you will be swapping in. You ought to replace the rod bearings and maybe even the mains while the donor engine is out, as well. Just by themselves, these couple of steps will give you a huge jump start on a newly "refreshed" SHO engine, along with a great deal of peace of mind. From there, with the basic 60K stuff and such, you could have a nice, strong Yamaha for many years to come. Ask yourself this one question: whose SHO deserves the best?

If the tensioners on the donor engine right now are in good shape like you say, then you can give them a little R & R per netviper's advice and then sell them just like that. I bet you could still get a decent return on the set of used ones, albeit probably not as much as the new ones would have fetched. But value cannot (and should not) always be measured in a dollars, especially when we are talking, what, a couple of hundred bucks either way (at most)? Think long term.

That's how I'd be looking at it, anyway.

 

[SHOtimer]

Well, that pads arn't worn down much, they have small grooves in them..but not much at all. I might just clean them and sell the new ones.

I'm thinking about installing the new chains, would that be worthless? I just don't want to have stretched chains in 50k and not have any available


bulldog3d: - Persistence and a bit of luck...

Thanx, Doug

 

[SHOKYLE1]

pulled my engine at 190k the chains and tensioners looked great. never personally heard of them being a problem area on older SHO

 

[SHOtimer]

Any other thoughts about the chains?

Doug