Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

mmmm looks like the source of the ever increasing engine noise I am getting is the cam chain, fairly noisy on start up, now I have been told that if they are the ratchet type that eventually the tensioner will click out another notch & the noise will settle, but if it is a bolt type then it might need to be replaced, can anyone tell me what type of tensioner these run?
the manual states these are a non return type, once it moves out to take up cam chain tension...... I wish it would hurry up & move out

Rob I changed one the other week on a little newer zx6....Is a peice of piss to do...They are a spring loaded ratchet and they do tend to fail apparently....In my case it was the spring that hold's the ratchet locked in if that makes sense ....It was deformed and the lock wouldn't lock if that makes sense ....

There is a trick apparently the tension spring can fail and you can pull it out and stretch it and reload (didn't work in my case)....If you like I can take a pic of the one I took out so you can see what your dealing with.....

ratchet type same as 10 i think. click it out anotherr.

Here is the one I took out...you can sort of just see in the pic the small spring on the locking mechanism has deformed and popped out a bit causing it not to lock properly....The larger one is the one you stretch for more preload for lack of another word ....

Don't have any problems with doing it Dave, I have done automatic ones ones on older bikes including manual racing tensioners but this could be a hassle as the everything has gotta come off including throttle bodies to get to it according to the manual, once again I can do it but with the SV on the bench in a million pieces I really don't want to start another teardown.... not that I have the time at the moment anyway work is murder at the moment.... you know the feeling

Disco wrote:Rob I changed one the other week on a little newer zx6....Is a peice of piss to do...They are a spring loaded ratchet and they do tend to fail apparently....In my case it was the spring that hold's the ratchet locked in if that makes sense ....It was deformed and the lock wouldn't lock if that makes sense ....

There is a trick apparently the tension spring can fail and you can pull it out and stretch it and reload (didn't work in my case)....If you like I can take a pic of the one I took out so you can see what your dealing with.....

I have no doubt about you mechanical capabilities .....

Mine was on the right hand side and only a fairing off job....As you stated yours sound's like a bigger PITA

Sits just behind the RH side of the frame

Borrow some small hands and you can get to it, i swapped mine out with out removing the throttle bodies.

03 or 05-06 I think they are a different set up

Mine was done on a '05- '06

You can remove it or adjust it this way. i have done both.
http://www.kawiforums.com/how-tos-faqs/ ... 636-a.html

Cool there is hope then.... edit checked the link, perfect job for a wet afternoon thanks heaps for the info.
Pics in the manual are from above the cct, spose the last thing they are going to tell you is this sort of stuff

Good luck just don't loosen it to much or u will have to remove it and re set it.

Well I started at 6am no one else around & it was pretty damn quiet, (hint, take off the tank.... its easier & you can see what you are doing) I found it a bit tight to get to the top bolt but I have a 1/4 socket set with a universal joint that was perfect for the job... my biggest concern was not to strip the bolt heads! anyway I loosened the top & wound her out a turn one two then use the open ended spanner for the bottom (I prefer to use the ring side but the outer edge was a bit big ... once again I didn't want to strip the head so & got an older 8mm spanner & cut back the outer edge & had the perfect fit) neither bolt was very tight I expected a heap of locktight to hinder the process. so being careful to listen out for the click I wound out the bottom & got nothing so I backed off the top a little more then the bottom gently & then she clicked the gap was about 1.5mm which was more than I had expected but I got the click so I was happy so with bolts tightened I whacked the tank back on & fired her up.................................................................. Farkin MAD! there is no noise!
Insert happy dance smile!
Total time to do the job 20 min & that includes the tool modification
Note: I would not try doing this in a noisy environment I only just heard the click

i just undid the big bolt in the middle, removed spring and pin and inserted appropriate tool to click it out one more.

If i was to buy a new spring, i;d chuck the spring in every one in a while to push it out a click if needed then remove the spring and keep in the toolbox. it'd last forever that way.

Yeah looked at that option Wattie but the majority on the linked forum were using this option & by keeping the tension on, there is less chance of going more than one click & having to take the farker out to reset it