APE manual CCT installation

[Cadbury64]

I have just received my APE manual CCT's and will install this weekend. In reading up on the APE website, I came across the following precaution:

"IMPORTANT: WHEN REPLACING ANY HYDRAULIC OEM TENSIONER WITH A MANUAL TENSIONER, IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THE OIL PASSAGE THAT SUPPLIED THE OEM TENSIONER IS BLOCKED OFF. FAILURE TO DO SO COULD RESULT IN A LOW OIL PRESSURE SITUATION."

I've not seen any reference to this in any installation guides for the VTR. Is this something that I need to address?

[Wicky]

HYDRAULIC OEM TENSIONER

The VTR's OEM tensioners are mechanical so you can ignore.

[Cadbury64]

Thanks for clearing that up Wicky.

[bazza696]

that sounds like wording for a suzuki sv tensioner, I believe the later ones have oil going to them.

[darkember]

Lol when you look down the tunnel were the tensioner it located you would need gallons of oil sloshing around. To be honest the VTR motor is neolithic in construction which, on the bright side makes it easy to work on.......

[Cadbury64]

Be gentle on the noob, Darkember! But you make a good point.

I was amazed when I pulled the valve cover off the back head just how much space there was in there; all those warnings about not dropping bolts or small children into the motor innards suddenly made sense. I could see the cam sprocket on the crank! My only recent comparison is my gear drive VFR which is pretty densely packaged.

[Kev L]

Just work carefully through the instructions on here, and seek advice should you find anything confusing while completing the job, and you'll be fine mate.

[darkember]

Where are you located someone on here will surely be close if you need assistance and we are an obliging bunch:-)

[Cadbury64]

Thanks fellas.

I've read and re-read Cybercarl's great step-by-step and it looks do-able, and being able to download the workshop manual is a blessing so I'm pretty comfortable about this.

[Cadbury64]

Back tensioner replaced, was pretty painless. One question, when I was rotating the crank by hand out to check everything was hunky dory, there's a ratchety sort of sound coming from the front left of the motor. Is that normal, I was thinking maybe I was hearing the sprag clutch. Haven't done the front tensioner yet.

[Cadbury64]

Time for help please. I think my front cam timing is off by one tooth. If I align the sprocket marks exactly, the FT mark is a bit off (see the pic). If I align the FT, the sprockets are slightly rotated. Can someone please confirm?


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[lloydie]

The timing Marks will be a little out as the cam chain gets old and stretched .
That ain't enough to worry about


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[Cadbury64]

Thanks my friend! Just what I wanted to hear!


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[darkember]

If you set it bang on in the timing window you will notice the marks on one of the cams will be about 1/2 a tooth out. Then when you set the cams to take up that 1/2 tooth the mark will be 1/2 out on the opposite cam marker. As said by Lloydie this is normal ware and be assured as long as you set the tension to Carl's video ie: 5-7mm up/down they will not jump a tooth. When I set mine I had 2mm up slack and 4mm down slack.

[Cadbury64]

Thanks Darkember; 6-7mm is exactly what I set the CCT to.

I certainly spent many minutes on my knees with a torch looking at the various timing marks, and came to the conclusion that if I did move the sprockets around on the chain, the alignment would be even worse, so I left well enough alone. But not before I rotated the crank whilst I still had a cable tie on the chain/sprocket! There was a loud pinging snap, followed by that hollow "oh crap" feeling. Many minutes of searching down the engine orifices failed to find the cable tie, but happily it had shot out of the engine onto the floor!

I started the bike up this morning and it sounds good to me so I think this operation went well. But my, what a PITA it is to get that cam cover back in place under the frame cross-member. I'm amazed that in the service manual, the front cam cover is removed without the carbs/plastic guard being pulled, they must use elves for this sort of work.