Kwak GT750 Camchain woes!!!

[Mrs Reject]

I know it's a bit of a grasshopper type question this one...

It's something I've never had to do in nearly three years of owning GT's - mine's always been alright, however, Mrs R's one has developed a rattle.

Can someone please advise me how I should adjust the camchain?

It's a KZ750P5, E reg - that someone's told me has an 'automatic tensioner', but I could be wrong

... confused of Seaford! :confused: So confused, I logged in under Mrs R's login - again!!!!

[Grav]

It does indeed have an automatic camchain adjuster, the only cure for a noisy camchain is a new one

[Mitch]

The theory with this one is that the carbs are soooooooooo badly out, because one of the previous owners - ? - had the bike re-jetted for K&Ns and Slash Cut pipes. *The* previous owner then put a Motad 2-1 onto it to make it run lovely!!! :P

It is very sluggish pulling up hill in first or second and keeps flooding, coming to a stop after going round our green three times!!!

I had a look at the plugs and they are more black than grey, so according to the 'trusty' haynes bodgers guide, the bike is running way too rich. Dropped the oil and filter today, no bits of shrapnel inside - glad to say! Just thick black oil and a filter that doesn't look like it's been changed recently - though it's not anywhere near as bad as the one in the ZL when we bought it. I shall persevere, as far as sticking it on a truck to go to the nearest Dyno equipped tuning shoppe!

If the worse comes to the worst and it is the camchain, what do you reckon to those Split Link Camchains? It may mean taking the bike to Galea Camchains in Wickford to get it sorted - seems cheap compared to a full stripdown.

[Grav]

My Zed has a split link camchain in it, I've had no trouble with it at all. If you have trouble getting stuff local I recommend these guys. www.z-power.co.uk Tel. 01942 262864. If these guys cant get it, then Kawasaki dont make it. Very reasonable prices and mail order too.

As for the running rich business, you really have to keep the K&N filters spotless in order for them to work properly. Way too high maintenance for me so I just stuck with the standard airbox and a Harris exhaust.

[Mitch]

I see what you mean about K&N's - When I get round to starting the rebuilding of my GT (currently waiting painfully for the other party's insurance to get their act together and inspect the bike), I'm keeping the standard airbox and Carb setup as we had soooo much crap with the ZL. We may invest in an hour of Dyno time at one down the road for Mrs R's though. For some reason, the airbox has been replaced by a quirky electric box, which contains the ignition lock and starter switch (which are on the wrong sides, you can't start the bike with the clutch in as the starter switch is on the left and the ignition is on the right!)

I've got most of the bits we need to rebuild mine, apart from a dinky little nose fairing off an XT350 or something similar. Once the assessor's been, I can then get on sorting out the mudguard mounting points, then get the whole lot painted. I think the only rally we'll be doing now (on the bikes) will be the Badger's one in July - we can then save for Faro next year (we put our savings into Mrs Rs latest ... bike).

[Mitch]

Me again, don't get on here much...

Anyroad up, I've just found out the carb jets have been waaaaaaay oversized - there are 140's in there, according to a mate of mine not far from here, who's shop the bike's in (MAG member and he's in the same club as Baldybongo) the jets should be 110's as standard. Even taking into account the bike would have had slashcuts and K&Ns on there before we bought it, it was even over jetted for them. It must have been drowning in petrol inside. He's now taking it down to 115 at least.

That's a start at least...

Now to find out why the bike's been cutting out (maybe he's already sorted it)

More will be revealed as the weeks go on!

[MrFluffy]

If you stil have excessive camchain slap, rather than clutch basket rattle from poorly balanced carbs (dont they all do that on tickover guv'nor?) and its not the chain/blades plain old wore out and shagged, the tensioner is indeed automatic and the usual culprit, however theyre also prone to jamming and there is a cure.
Take out the tensioner (two m6 bolts) and you will see that there is two wedge shaped components that slide accross each other, these develop marks and nicks, and you can carefully flat off the marks with a very fine oil stone, taking care not to take anything but the bits that stop smooth sliding off (otherwise you'll rub off the case hardening then you'll be in deep poo). Do this and they should slide over each other smoothly, assemble it again after a thorough clean and lube up with light grease and lock it in the fully retracted postion and refit it to the bike. Once its in position and tight, back off the lock nut and bolt and if all is well it'll self adjust to perfection if you carefully crank the motor over by a spanner on the atu drive nut a few times (because im paranoid like that...).
Ive done this loads of times, on various z motors and on both of my turbo's and ive never had to replace them after or use a billet camchain adjuster like half the world seems to recommend...
I like the gs one much better though, you can SEE that working... :cool:

[Mitch]

I like the gs one much better though, you can SEE that working... :cool:

Hmmm... that's as may be - though it's a shame in all my experience with eighties' suzuk's is that the electrickery falls apart before the camchain tensioner!

At least it's not a plastic maggot though and their Cadbury's Camchains :p Saying that, I'd rather have another one of those on the road instead of no bike!!!

[Mrs Reject]

Right, here's my foray into the world of bike mechanics. Can anyone tell me what symptoms a loose cam chain produces. The bike's been re-jetted and has improved in that regard, at least it goes, but is still a bugger going up hills at slow speeds, say if I am stuck behind a lorry on the Downs. Could the loose cam chain have anything to do with that?
It is very loose, it makes quite an alarming rattling noise!!! Needs to be sorted soon.

[devon-tony]

surely if its that stretched and worn then couldnt it affect the cam timing, maybe have the cam cover off and have a look to see where the marks on the cam wheels line up with the head.

just a thought

also is there any smoke?, maybe with that much rich petrol in it, could it have been washing the bores and maybe damaged them??

[Mad Dog]

Have you done a compression test?

Could be the bores are so worn you've got bugger all compression and the noise you hear is the pistons slapping in the bores.

[Mrs Reject]

Have you done a compression test?

Could be the bores are so worn you've got bugger all compression and the noise you hear is the pistons slapping in the bores.

Yes that has been suggested - would it still make a rattling noise like a chain though? Hopefully I should be able to get that sorted without resorting to putting a new engine in. There is a place up the road that does rebores (I think). It's a bit tricky coming home avoiding hills seeing as we live on't South Downs. It's ok at speed but get stuck behind a bus and the bike can't cope.

[Mitch]

Have you done a compression test?

Could be the bores are so worn you've got bugger all compression and the noise you hear is the pistons slapping in the bores.

I've spoken to the bloke who got the bike running, who said that compression is down on two cylinders. So I suppose it would need a rebore, new pistons and rings at least. Not exactly cheap, unless you no know of somewhere mate? Alternatively, would we be better off to get another engine? (or even complete bike so I can use the forks in mine)

[Blackjack]

Them GT750s all have HyVo camchains I'm told. The one that looks like a toothed belt not the one that looks like a bicycle chain. Not quite as easy to change.

Apparently the auto tensioners stick on them too. This can usually, though not always, be resolved by stripping the tensioner, cleaning it and reassembling it.

[Mitch]

Them GT750s all have HyVo camchains I'm told. The one that looks like a toothed belt not the one that looks like a bicycle chain. Not quite as easy to change.

Apparently the auto tensioners stick on them too. This can usually, though not always, be resolved by stripping the tensioner, cleaning it and reassembling it.

The HyVo chain is the primary chain as opposed to the camchain - I should know, I've snapped one on my GT550!!!! It's about six links wide - quite how it snapped I'll never know but it sits there in my shed laughing at me!!

[Blackjack]

Well that's funny,

Cause the last 2 GT750 motors I've had were HyVo camchains.

Plus I managed to make myself look silly by asking someone if theirs was bicycle chain or HyVo, only to have it pointed out to me by several people that they are ALL HyVo camchains.

You might find this useful, it has all the parts diagrams from the factory fiches...

http://www.buykawasaki.com/Default.asp?strContentURL=Site/VIVehicleInformation/VIChooseVehicle.asp?intCatalogID=2&intParts=1

[Mitch]

Well that's funny,

Cause the last 2 GT750 motors I've had were HyVo camchains.

Plus I managed to make myself look silly by asking someone if theirs was bicycle chain or HyVo, only to have it pointed out to me by several people that they are ALL HyVo camchains.

You might find this useful, it has all the parts diagrams from the factory fiches...

http://www.buykawasaki.com/Default.asp?strContentURL=Site/VIVehicleInformation/VIChooseVehicle.asp?intCatalogID=2&intParts=1

That's me bein' daft then, I had a look myself - gotta point there! me the intinerant yorkshireman, I thought the Hyvo was a generic term for the primary and thats it doh!!! They're still easy to replace though with a split link one...
:o

[Blackjack]

That's me bein' daft then, I had a look myself - gotta point there! me the intinerant yorkshireman, I thought the Hyvo was a generic term for the primary and thats it doh!!! They're still easy to replace though with a split link one...
:o

Not sure but that sort of sounds like you're saying you can replace a HyVo with a bicycle type? Which you can't.

You can fit a HyVo without splitting cases and so on, but I just get Don to do it so I've no idea whats involved.

Which is only fair as I do all his welding.......

[Mitch]

Not sure but that sort of sounds like you're saying you can replace a HyVo with a bicycle type? Which you can't.

You can fit a HyVo without splitting cases and so on, but I just get Don to do it so I've no idea whats involved.

Which is only fair as I do all his welding.......

I know that I can't do that, but there's a firm in Essex - Galea Camchains that do all that sort of thing - they've been doing it for years, i.e. fitting new soft link chains to GTs, when they were the main bike for Dizzies in London, so I leave it to them, unless the firm nearest to me can do it. Grav knows more about it than I ever will...

We may be getting another bike anyhow, as I need a new set of forks after my recent crash and as Mrs R needs a new engine (it would be cheaper methinks) it will sort things out quicker.

[Blackjack]

Yes. Grav has my old engine. The one where the rattly cam chain turned out to be a rattly big end!

[Mitch]

Yes. Grav has my old engine. The one where the rattly cam chain turned out to be a rattly big end!

Is that the one that's getting its valves sorted?

[Blackjack]

I think he's sorting his engine out with the bits from my old one. But I could be wrong.