HELP Cam Chain Question

Anyone know roughly how much it would cost to replace an (unbroken) cam
chain on an 1978 Yamaha XS1100? How many hours labour would it involve? I'm
thinking of buying it and the cam chain hasn't been done. Thanks.

 

I got quote about $600 for the CB...

something I would have loved to do myself, but it would have ended in
tears, so I bought another one...


mh

 

In aus.motorcycles on Sat, 16 May 2009 17:15:57 -0700 (PDT)

When it had to be done on my Kwak GT550, a friend of mine did it with
a joining link chain, using 2 hammers to peen the rivets.

Yes, he did do his apprenticeship on British bikes, why do you ask?

(As it happened, that chain did another 40,000km and 2 more owners
that I know of, no idea what happened after that, lost track of it.)

Zebee

 

I did one on my first XJ900 and the chain was only about $100. (you'd need a
tensioner, gasket and tappet-cover-gasket too.)
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/CAM-...4920295QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories
I thought I could attach the old to the new and feed it through rather than
removing the sump and it worked but I slipped a tooth on one cam and that
took a bit of friggin' around to identify.
Had I not buggered it up it would've only been an hour-and-a-bit's work.

 

I used one hammer and a small block of steel on the opposite side of the
sprocket. (Can't remember what the steel was from but it was probably 1/2kg)
The joining link was pretty soft and peened-over fairly easily.

 

also with mine I was pretty sure the chain tentioners was cactus, (not
in the $600 quote)

mh

 

It's about $100 for the chain, and an hour or two of your time if you
get it right.

I made a balls of the job on my CBR1000F, and ended up with ben valves
in the motor (note that you do NOT need to unbolt camshaft sprockets
to do the job, and if you do it may well end in tears).

No problems at all with the camchain replacement on my GPX250.

On my GPZ900R the camchain is at one end of the motor, so you buy it
as a loop that doesn't need a joiner link.

If you're in Canberra and have feel like letting "2 out of 3" man have
a go at it, give me a call. It'll cost you a poofter drink.


BTH

 

I have replaced a conventional link cam chain without splitting the cases
just by peening the joining link over. However if your XS has a HyVo chain
it is unlikely you will be able to join it and this will necessitate
splitting the cases. (Assuming the cam chain runs between the middle
cylinders.)