+1

Art Webb wrote on 05/15/15 at 11:58:53:


If your average Joe Motorcycle bought a savage and read both the owner's manual and the clymers manual, he would not find any interval for servicing the cam chain.  The owner's manual maintenance table only goes to 15K miles.  His only method of finding out would be through regular servicing at a dealership mechanic who might tell him the replacement interval for the cam chain.  When the time comes, he would pay several hundred dollars for this major service and his bike wouldn't blow up, so long as he took it in a bit early.

Here, where we have a forum of mechanically inclined enthusiasts, we have revealed empirical evidence of the natural wear and failure patterns of both the tensioner and the chain.  People have researched to show that the chain's wear limit extends far beyond it's replacement interval.  If the chain is still good and expensive to replace, then why replace it?  So the good people here decided to modify the tensioner to get the full life out of the chain.  It's been field tested for several years now with excellent results.  It does exactly what it's supposed to.

If you own your bike for 60K miles, you could replace the chain 4 times over the bike's life.  Maybe that's $1,600.  OR you could mod the tensioner and the cost will be cut in half with all of the reliability.  It's your call, man.

Nobody here wants to force you into anything, but we DO want you to understand why we all think this is your best option.

raydawg wrote on 05/14/15 at 16:58:48:


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Thank you for saying that.  I was biting my tongue real hard.  

As a diy fix, if its too far out could me and father weld an exte ion where the hole on the plug is and put a new hole in it, so it goes back in normal ? Could all this be done in a weekend, put some gasket maker in and wait the 24 hours and be back on the road?

He has a stick welder. In his opinion its better to just buy a new chain and tensioner and install it ourselves rather than try to weld it. I know its not going to fix the problem that the plunger will still come out, but hey. New chain will give us at least another thousands of miles

Alrighty then, thank you

Since earlier the cost of the Verslavy was more than what you could do, now would be a good time to weld a tab on the tensioner.The chain has miles left in it. That would give you time to save up for a chain and cam ( if you want to get a bit more performance outta the thing ) and give you time to get familiar with how to work on it by reading the stuff on here. FWIW, you've been the hardest person to get to listen and trust the people here,who have more experience with these bikes than you'll find in most dealerships.in the future I won't be virtually begging you to listen. Several of us went to great lengths to get you to do what we knew needed done. I think you owe the forum an apology and I think you should tell them that you will be willing to listen to the experts they are. We have carb guys who just Know. I listened to them and my bike ran great,, without these guys, Verslagen and Serowbot in particular, and possibly others who have tired of the forum, sold the bike, for whatever reason, moved on.. I don't remember that far back that well.  For all I know im giving credit to people who weren't here when I did the work. Point is, I listened to people who owned and modified and tuned and wrung a bit more power out of these bikes. Nobody here gets paid when Verslagen sells a part. I don't recommend them because he buys me beer, but because they allow a rider to do a simple,cheap job and ride.
Now, when you get to End of the chain life using the Verslavy, I would be surprised if it's not time for new guides. A cam, new chain and guides, Dyna exhaust, I had a fork brace and really, I think that it mattered, Rowboat, not on board,
Another thing to be aware of is the spark plug sits in a cavity that gets crud in it. If you just pull the plug without blowing it clear, junk can fall in and screw up the cylinder and rings.

Get a long, say 4 inch or more, piece of metal the right thickness. Grind the end to fit the radius of the tensioner. Grind each part into a flat tipped V shape.  Put it in a vise, tack both sides, flip it ,tack again. Keep it straight, welding draws things, Grind it, inspect the weld. The load is mostly pressure and then you get vibration. Really, I m not a good welder, but this would not scare me. Now, you've got a handle. Figure out how far from the original hole the new one needs to be. Drill, then cut the excess off,  Dress the end up,

Fabrication requires certain tools. I expect anyone who has a welder also has a 4 inch grinder and hopefully a handheld grinder with a cutoff disk.
A bench grinder is handy thing,too.
Some have replaced the spring in the tensioner with a lighter one. I d wanna do that. Long explanation as to why.

All I can say is... WOW!