ZUKIMON
02-19-2009, 10:14 PM
OK guys/gals, I have this dilema. I have been researching my bike since before I bought it and this is one thing that constantly comes up about them.......Replace the CCT before it lets go and ruins the head. I have no noise in the engine at present but I also don't want to worry with it when it's nice and warm out when I could be riding instead of wrenching. I have heard buy the APE, buy the APE, buy the APE, and so on. I have also seen and heard about this:
Honda Cam Chain Tensioners, yes they suck big time but there is a $1.50 fix for the later Hondas, F3 and up. If the CCT has a plug (bolt) at the outer end remove it. Buy a 6X1X30mm bolt and nut . Check thread pitch by placing one bolts thread against the other. They should nest perfectly. Thread the nut on the bolt and install the bolt into the hole that the plug was in. Gently (fingertip pressure only) rotate bolt until it makes contact with the piston. Hold bolt with wrench and tighten nut against the CCT case. Your CCT will now be silent. Why does this fix work? The CCT in the Hondas does not have a ratcheting mechanism. It depends on a left handed threaded shaft that is spring loaded. Due to the locking pitch thread design this shaft cannot back up. Sounds good so far. Unfortunatly the shaft stays in one place so long that the constant vibration wears out the shaft or the nut that the shaft rides in. The shaft gets sloppy and does not exert enough pressure on the chain pad so the chain starts to rattle at high rpm. The bolt fix exerts just enough pressure on the threaded shaft that it prevents the shaft from vibrating and backing up thus eliminating the chain noise. Yes you will have to adjust the bolt but so far I have no historical data as to how long the time intervals are in between adjustments. Maybe some of you big milege people can provide the data. Any way, hope it prevents you from buying a new CCT.
This is how one guy suggested setting the APE, and I believe that these are the directions that come with the APE unit.
with the engine off, remove the stock cct, and put on the APE cct(with gasket of course). back out the locknut and a o-ring, turn in the bolt still it touches the cct chain buffer. start the engine and ya can hear it is pretty noisy, turn in ya bolt slowly and the nose will go away.
to confirm the position, back out the bolt slowly again, the noise will come back. just turn it in till the noise is no more and turn in ya locknut and ya are done.
just to make sure to make it too tight, the noise once goes away, thats the best poisition.
This is the APE model and part number just for reference.
HT929 875-427 EC631 875-756
http://www.orientexpress.com/images//TopEnd/TOP-3APETensioners-SAC.jpg
Now I am a Tech by trade but I work on cars for a living....not bikes. I have worked on bikes before on my own and helping others out and to be honest, other than being completely jammed into a very tight frame, they are basicaly a four cylinder car engine (I guess you could say that a car engine was really a bike engine in disguise :D). Really though, I have heard guys put down the bolt in the stock tensioner method, but to me that just seems logical and like something that I would do. I also think that it would work very well with no future problems because of the addition. If you look at the APE tensioner, it's nothing more than a damn bolt with a machined head on it that is smooth and flat, two nuts an o-ring and a billet block. Now I know it's only $50 for one from APE but that's $50 I could put towards something else if I fixed it with the bolt method described above. I would like to hear your thoughts on this and any and all input that you have, especially if you have done this mod, or one of this type before. :dthumb:
Honda Cam Chain Tensioners, yes they suck big time but there is a $1.50 fix for the later Hondas, F3 and up. If the CCT has a plug (bolt) at the outer end remove it. Buy a 6X1X30mm bolt and nut . Check thread pitch by placing one bolts thread against the other. They should nest perfectly. Thread the nut on the bolt and install the bolt into the hole that the plug was in. Gently (fingertip pressure only) rotate bolt until it makes contact with the piston. Hold bolt with wrench and tighten nut against the CCT case. Your CCT will now be silent. Why does this fix work? The CCT in the Hondas does not have a ratcheting mechanism. It depends on a left handed threaded shaft that is spring loaded. Due to the locking pitch thread design this shaft cannot back up. Sounds good so far. Unfortunatly the shaft stays in one place so long that the constant vibration wears out the shaft or the nut that the shaft rides in. The shaft gets sloppy and does not exert enough pressure on the chain pad so the chain starts to rattle at high rpm. The bolt fix exerts just enough pressure on the threaded shaft that it prevents the shaft from vibrating and backing up thus eliminating the chain noise. Yes you will have to adjust the bolt but so far I have no historical data as to how long the time intervals are in between adjustments. Maybe some of you big milege people can provide the data. Any way, hope it prevents you from buying a new CCT.
This is how one guy suggested setting the APE, and I believe that these are the directions that come with the APE unit.
with the engine off, remove the stock cct, and put on the APE cct(with gasket of course). back out the locknut and a o-ring, turn in the bolt still it touches the cct chain buffer. start the engine and ya can hear it is pretty noisy, turn in ya bolt slowly and the nose will go away.
to confirm the position, back out the bolt slowly again, the noise will come back. just turn it in till the noise is no more and turn in ya locknut and ya are done.
just to make sure to make it too tight, the noise once goes away, thats the best poisition.
This is the APE model and part number just for reference.
HT929 875-427 EC631 875-756
http://www.orientexpress.com/images//TopEnd/TOP-3APETensioners-SAC.jpg
Now I am a Tech by trade but I work on cars for a living....not bikes. I have worked on bikes before on my own and helping others out and to be honest, other than being completely jammed into a very tight frame, they are basicaly a four cylinder car engine (I guess you could say that a car engine was really a bike engine in disguise :D). Really though, I have heard guys put down the bolt in the stock tensioner method, but to me that just seems logical and like something that I would do. I also think that it would work very well with no future problems because of the addition. If you look at the APE tensioner, it's nothing more than a damn bolt with a machined head on it that is smooth and flat, two nuts an o-ring and a billet block. Now I know it's only $50 for one from APE but that's $50 I could put towards something else if I fixed it with the bolt method described above. I would like to hear your thoughts on this and any and all input that you have, especially if you have done this mod, or one of this type before. :dthumb: