cam chain tensioner and exhaust

[musselmark]

I am doing the tensioner and rather than messing with the hanger bolts which I understand are difficult to remove and moving the exhaust back a few inches is there any reason not to just remove the donut clamps and manifold pipes from the engine and then lift the rear of the engine?

 

[musselmark]

Actually I just did it and everything seems fine. What is the purpose of rotating the engine to the II mark TDC #3, if you put zip ties on the chain and sprockets what could go wrong?

 

[4strokeluvr111]

how long did it take you?

 

[musselmark]

I am still in the process, I just got it out. I didn't have to mess with the sieved hanger bolts so that helped. The only hard part so far was getting the tensioners bolts out, very awkward, should be fun getting the new ones back in. I remember seeing a ratchet handle where you twisted the handle and a gear in the head caused the socket to turn, it would be ideal getting these out, a 1/4" drive air ratchet would probably work as well. The sticky here is really helping. It is going to take a full day but that includes running back to the computer several times and to the store for some tools.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

I was wondering about the tensioner

 

[musselmark]

what do you mean? What were you wondering about? If you are asking me how long the whole job took, I am still not finished, I have another hour or so of putting things back on. Like I said before it will end up being a full day but if I were to do another one I would say 1/2 that.

 

[jsjk-4-stroke]

for that bottom bolt on the tensioner i used a wobble 1/4 in extension you can get them at any auto parts store. or get the flex extension , all i removed were the clamps on the exhaust.

 

[musselmark]

I didn't remove the battery tray, I wonder if that would have allowed the engine to tilt more allowing the use of those tools, because I tried them and could not get them in there. Also it was very tight trying to get the engine spacer out and back in. Could someone explain to me about the whole TDC, II mark thing. Why couldn't you do it at any engine position? Just curious.

 

[thrasher]

I wondered the same thing when I replaced my tensioner as well. I guess it's a verification point, at Mark II, lines on the intake and exhaust gears will exactly line up. After replacing the tensioner and spinning the engine you can double check that your chain hasn't skipped a gear by having everything line up once again before putting everything back together.

 

[grizztracks]

It good practice to put it on TDS before taking it apart. It will help you understand the timing procedure so if it happens to jump time you'll know the proper positioning of the crank and cams to reset it. The biggest reason to use the tie straps is to prevent the chain from skipping on the gears before the new tensioner takes up the slack in the chain. These engines jump time very easily due to the small toothed gears and how the dual cams are timed. Every time the cams rotate off of TDC for each cylinder the exhaust lobe hasn't completely rotated off of the valve before the intake lobe starts to put pressure on the intake valve. The exhaust valve spring actual tries to rotate the exhaust cam as it comes off the lobe while the intake valve spring resists against the intake cam rotation. If there is any slack in the chain it will develop between the cam gears and the chain will skip on the intake gear.

 

[4strokeluvr111]

what do you mean? What were you wondering about? If you are asking me how long the whole job took, I am still not finished, I have another hour or so of putting things back on. Like I said before it will end up being a full day but if I were to do another one I would say 1/2 that.

Sorry about the confusion....I was wondering how long it took you to do the tensioner only. I must not have read your post correctly....my bad!

 

[musselmark]

10 minutes out and 10 minutes in. In hindsight I think taking the battery tray out would have let me tilt the engine a bit more and given some more room. I used a 1/4" rachet and held a flat screwdriver in between the socket and middle part of tensioner to creat friction so the socket would only ratchet one way, otherwise after it was loosened it just went back and forth. An extendable magnetic pickup tool help in putting the bolts into the tensioner once it was in place. I hope I didn't overtighten it , I wanted to make sure it was tight because if it loosened it would likely destroy the engine. I was thinking later, if I had stripped the bolt holes that would have been a disaster.