SuzukiSavage.com - Print Page

SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl
General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> popped the cam chain
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1164777296

Message started by azjay on 11/28/06 at 21:14:56

Title: popped the cam chain
Post by azjay on 11/28/06 at 21:14:56

tonight, we were returning from "two wheel tuesday" a 30-40 mile evening ride and dinner with several other motorcyclists. cruising along at 65-70 mph, i was admiring her flame in the pipe 8), when all of a sudden POOOFFF!!@! a ball of black smoke followed by engine silence ??? to debby's credit, she did not over react or panic, she simply moved to the shoulder and slowed to a stop. our 15 yr old daughter was riding 2up with me, i grabbed all 3 discs and slowed my bike right in behind debby. the next thing i heard was the compressionless cranking of the suzi :'( (play taps now) her road king is almost road worthy, so i guess she moves up this week. i have until spring to get the savage back up, so the (then 16 yr old) daughter can start riding it.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by justin_o_guy on 11/29/06 at 01:09:02

Crummy deal. Did it have a lot of miles on it? I guess what I am asking is, should you have kept this from happening by more diligent maintenance or did the thing fail before it should have? I ask because if it is caused by riding hard I better get to looking at it soon.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by azDebraD on 11/29/06 at 05:17:01

azjay wrote:

to the fact of what happend I AM A VERY SAD GIRL :'( :'( :'!!!!

i now have to drive the cage for a few days and i am definately not happy about that. i began riding the suzi on school days. for the reason that the college has been doing some major construction and have closed down three major parking lots. there has been no parking for cages unless you want to park in tim-buk-to or bum-f@#$ egypt :o :o.

i think i will fire my mechanic ::) ::). or just maybe hold a wake for the bike ;D.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by bentwheel on 11/29/06 at 05:27:22

azDebraD wrote:

i think i will fire my mechanic ::) ::). or just maybe hold a wake for the bike ;D.

Say, isn't your mechanic the same guy that ran the engine with no oil in it for several hundred miles? At the very least, take his tools away for a month.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by azjay on 11/29/06 at 05:34:54

justin_o_guy wrote:

the bike has less than 10k miles on it, here is the history of the shortened life span
http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=RubberSideDown;action=display;num=1163083713
typically 20k is the end of life expectancy for the cam chain. the cam chain adjuster seems to have issues too, i recommend a search and read about others experiences with it, i killed ours :-[ i would not consider highway riding at 65-70 "hard", that is everyday riding.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by azDebraD on 11/29/06 at 06:02:39

bentwheel wrote:

Say, isn't your mechanic the same guy that ran the engine with no oil in it for several hundred miles? At the very least, take his tools away for a month.

yes :o! that would be the one and i think i will do that at the very least he might learn a lesson ;D.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by azjay on 11/29/06 at 06:12:13

azDebraD wrote:

yes :o! that would be the one and i think i will do that at the very least he might learn a lesson ;D.

you'll have to find something else to do with him, sitting in a chair isn't an option

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by azDebraD on 11/29/06 at 06:24:05

azjay wrote:

you'll have to find something else to do with him, sitting in a chair isn't an option

maybe finishing the big shop out back will help you remember to finish the job right ;D.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by Reelthing on 11/29/06 at 07:08:54

Of course it's really running hours not miles but without a hour meter this is difficult to calculate.

Two interesting situations going on, the chain wears and stretches while the spring loaded tensioner puts pressure on the chain to keep it tight – when it over extends it falls apart and creates a lot of slack in the chain and it’s not long for this world at that point, however if the chain pops the tensioner also falls apart – hum so which happens first the chicken or the egg?

Azjay, in the case here where oiling was an issue I would think that the chain wore very quickly – when you take it apart could you measure the 21 pin/20 link as show in the book?

Of course we have recently scared stinger on his ’02 savage with 25k generally higher speed miles which would be far less hours than most commute bikes and has had very frequent oil changes.

Stinger in order to not break the bank it might be worth while to just inspect the tensioner on that ’02 by pulling the right side(starboard) cover. The tensioner is a ratchet device with about 24 teeth maximum travel is right on 1 inch past that it will fall apart. I have seen it stated that if the tensioner piston is out more that .7 inch (18mm) it is time to replace the chain – this seems like a reasonable measurement if the measurement is taken along the ratchet teeth. So it might only cost you a new side cover gasket and an hour labor to find out – since you must take this cover off to do the job anyway.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by azjay on 11/29/06 at 10:31:03

Reelthing wrote:

Azjay, in the case here where oiling was an issue I would think that the chain wore very quickly – when you take it apart could you measure the 21 pin/20 link as show in the book?

i will be pleased to measure photo and post anything that anybody wants to see, when i get in there

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by Jim_R on 11/30/06 at 11:35:27

My old Savage only had 6k on it when the cam chain broke and bent the valves. I was so sad but I had ti rebuilt at the stealership for 1300.00. That was just the top cylinder. YIPE

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by darndt on 11/30/06 at 17:46:51

I was wondering if it is a common problem with the savage to have cam chain problems with under 30000 miles on it I have a savage with 14000 miles on it was hopeing that it should be reliable for at least 50000 before any major problems the savage is my newest bike i also have a Honda vt500 ascot 1983 around 30000 miles on it and a 1976 guzzi convert with around 90000 miles on it no major problems on either so far

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by azjay on 11/30/06 at 17:49:40

Jim_R wrote:

My old Savage only had 6k on it when the cam chain broke and bent the valves. I was so sad but I had ti rebuilt at the stealership for 1300.00. That was just the top cylinder. YIPE

youch! the stealership wont see me, except at the parts counter, and thats bad enough. share your experience with us, when your chain let go. you may have posted at that time, but i've slept since then, so i dont remember it.

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by KenGLong on 11/30/06 at 18:17:03

I've got 21K on mine. Don't know for sure but I assume the cam chain is the original. Are there any heavy-duty aftermarket choices here or are we limited to the OEM part?

How 'bout a survey? What mileage did everyone have to replace theirs at and did it break or did you just replace it during maintenance?

Title: Re: popped the cam chain
Post by Savage_Rob on 11/30/06 at 20:39:04

That survey took place a few weeks ago in another thread.