CCT broken spring.

[tattoo]

tony...i argued the same point with him...when mine failed i was using it everyday,sometimes covering 400ml aday round trips.

my theory is the rear spring is constantly being tempered/quenched by being allowed to cool in the hot oil it retains but the front isn't as the oil drains away as soon as the engines turned off leaving it hot n dry

if that makes sense...

[edds11]

complete sense and I would agree

[Hairy biker]

Thanks for sharing that one guys I'll definatly be be using the stopper mod, I've got an old cct to try it out on first.

[bazza696]

for your information I have stripped a lot of these down and apart from the occasional exception they all fail like that, when you look at the colour of the spring its like they have heated the spring to make it a spring, but not heated it throughout the material. Bit similar to case hardening, therefore that's why I think that it snaps with a zig zag.

[sirch345]

Fantastic photos

+1 You got to love a bit of Macro

It's good to have some good close up pics of where they fail. At least they can be used to show others exactly what goes wrong. If new CCT's where not so expensive to replace I would consider the stop mod over manuals if dong it again. It would be nice to be able to just buy new springs. They just look to thin and fragile to me and you can see particles of rust starting to form on the outside. Maybe if the springs where a thicker coil they would not snap so easily.

How many times have you had to replace them over the years Chris.

(:-})

Cheers Carl
The springs do look fragile I agree, and yes a thicker wire might be better, but I'm guessing it's all to do with the amount of resistance a spring will need to give as in this type of use. I'm not sure if that is rust showing or the type of material used. One thing I did notice on removing this CCT spring was that it was covered in oil from one end to the other. I've only had this one fail since using the stopper mod, although I have replaced CCT's when I have noticed the springs becoming weak or the plunger sticking before they have failed. This one had only done approx. 6,500 miles.

We used to have a guy on here who could supply springs only, the only problem we found was fitting the springs, as in setting the standard CCT with the right amount of tension. You needed to preload the spring first on assembly of the CCT, that is not as easy as it sounds to get the correct amount of tension.

A few weeks ago I took the Storm for a ride out, I'd only done around 15 miles when the front CCT decided to fail. As I had fitted the Stopper Mod I was able to ride the bike back home



What's the 'stopper mod', I've done the cam chains on mine but I've never of this before it sounds like good idea though

Darren, Kev L explained it very well, here's the link for the stopper mod if you've not already found it of course
http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=19416

Interesting photo's Chris. I had a return spring in a door handle fail in the same way, however no valves were damaged in that incident!!

I've had a few of them over the years Kev

i'm really glad you posted that picture sirch.

i was talking to a vtr owner the other night and he said that every failed cct he'd stripped had failed due to the bike not being used which he said caused rust to form on the spring inturn causing the spring to break...your picture clearly shows there's no rust on the spring,

it's good to hear the stopper mod worked and you got home without damaging the engine

Cheers Tattoo I was a bit miffed at the time in having to cut my ride-out short, but upon reflection I was pretty pleased .
I'm not 100% sure on that theory, although it is one I have wondered about myself in the past.

Glad I finally got around to doing mine last year.

Thanks for the great info Chris.

Cheers Rob It certainly gives you piece of mind.

i'm really glad you posted that picture sirch.

i was talking to a vtr owner the other night and he said that every failed cct he'd stripped had failed due to the bike not being used which he said caused rust to form on the spring inturn causing the spring to break...your picture clearly shows there's no rust on the spring,

it's good to hear the stopper mod worked and you got home without damaging the engine

I had one fail at low revs pulling off a roundabout when it had been replaced with a new one 18 months previously. And I used my bike every day......properly, too.

But it's noticeable how many fronts fail, and so few rears- I've really only seen two rears, can't think how many fronts, though- dozens.
The only reason I can see is that the rears fill with oil, and the front's don't.
As the part number is the same, it should be 50:50.

I would say the same Tony, it should be 50/50 between the front and rear CCT failures, but it never is, it must be something to do with the oil filling the rear one unlike the front.

Chris, lucky you know the virtues of the stopper mod and it got you home safe

Al, I would have looked a bit of an idiot if mine and Delmeekc CCT mod had failed

my theory is the rear spring is constantly being tempered/quenched by being allowed to cool in the hot oil it retains but the front isn't as the oil drains away as soon as the engines turned off leaving it hot n dry

if that makes sense...

That's another very good point Tattoo

for your information I have stripped a lot of these down and apart from the occasional exception they all fail like that, when you look at the colour of the spring its like they have heated the spring to make it a spring, but not heated it throughout the material. Bit similar to case hardening, therefore that's why I think that it snaps with a zig zag.

Baz, another good point there about the spring steel treatment.

I thought the weak point on the spring was the bit that was bent 90* and sits in the worm slot, as that is what I've come across, obviously not on the majority of them.

Chris.

[Xenocide]

...the stop mod over manuals if dong it again. It would be nice to be able to just buy ...

(:-})

Something on your mind mate?

[VTRDark]

My i was on a t break at the time.

(:-})

[tony.mon]

You might be able to produce modified Honda tensioners with a stopper mod already done, I find that the usual length of stopper needed is around 11mm, but this of course depends on the cam chain stretch.
But it may be that a stopper of only (say) 8mm would be enough to prevent the cam chain climbing over the teeth of the sprocket; and would then be able to be fitted to engines of all ages and wear- even new ones.
You'd need to measure that carefully, because if it was too tight it would knacker the head and cam.....

But if that was to be a reasonable minimum length, then it would be possible to manufacture new replacement stoppers, ready to fit to any bike, off the shelf, so to speak.

Food for thought, but I'm not sure I'd want to use my engine to see how short you could go before the chain jumped teeth......

[Kev L]

What about using that spare bike you picked up recently? No? Just a thought!

[agentpineapple]

What about using that spare bike you picked up recently? No? Just a thought!

present owner is elderly and not so careful by all accounts........

[sirch345]

You might be able to produce modified Honda tensioners with a stopper mod already done, I find that the usual length of stopper needed is around 11mm, but this of course depends on the cam chain stretch.
But it may be that a stopper of only (say) 8mm would be enough to prevent the cam chain climbing over the teeth of the sprocket; and would then be able to be fitted to engines of all ages and wear- even new ones.
You'd need to measure that carefully, because if it was too tight it would knacker the head and cam.....

But if that was to be a reasonable minimum length, then it would be possible to manufacture new replacement stoppers, ready to fit to any bike, off the shelf, so to speak.

Food for thought, but I'm not sure I'd want to use my engine to see how short you could go before the chain jumped teeth......

Cheers Tony, although I had thought of that a long time ago (in 2006 to be precise ), it's the variation of the stopper needed that put me off doing that. I know the variation is not huge (well I've not come across one yet that is), but I would not want to be responsible for some poor sod ruining their engine with a wrong length stopper. After all the whole idea behind the stopper mod was to avoid engine damage

Chris.