Lower camchain guides

[EFH]

Greetings, i just joined today, looking for xs11 answers & found you guys. 1980 xs1100 sg. 49,000 miles ,replaced adjuster seals 50 miles ( 1yr. ) ago. Usual 4-5 minute warmup before takeoff, then a slapping camchain noise at idle so i shut it down, disgruntalled?
1 yr. Later i pull the valvecover to inspect , align "c" ,check chain for chain slop & got it. I could lift chain where the upper guide could almost be lifted out, performed adjuster adjustment & the plunger slapped it back to propper adjustment. Appalled, i removed adjuster housing to inspect, all good except found small 1/8" black hard plastic? Squarish bit laying in adjuster housing .suspect from lower guides? Can the lower guides be pulled without pulling the head? Find it hard to believe i could have not did the adjustment when reinstalling after resealing because everything was normal quite for 50 miles, but! I'm affraid some guide surface has come off down below , top guide & plunger look good. Any you had guide surface disentagration. Thanks

[TopCatGr58]

Hey there EFH,
Can't really tell you much about the cam chain guides possibly breaking off, but they are pretty tough. But with your cam chain noise recurring after you did the adjustment sounds like the adjuster is NOT holding it's setting! IT's not uncommon for the securing bolt to strip the housing, and so loose it's tension to hold the tensioner plunger in place, which allows it to get pushed back outward, causing Xsive slack in the chain, which can be catastrophic if it jumps teeth and such. Good you were able to check your "C" markings and all were still lined up! You should probably remove and inspect your tensioner again for scrape marks on the flat surface of the plunger which could indicate that it is slipping under alleged tension of the securing bolt!

There were some posts about making/converting the spring plungered adjuster into a SOLID adjustable tensioner, a search for cam chain tensioner should reveal it.
T.C.

[trbig]

Can the lower guides be pulled without pulling the head?

Nope. But it sounds like you need to. The guides are a wearable item, but this is the first fail of one I've heard of. If that teflon is gone, your cam chain will be riding against the steel arm that your adjustment plunger pushes against. That guide probably takes up 1/8 to 1/4 inch of adjustment on your adjuster.. so it is probably at it's full extension point and not tightening your chain enough anyway. I personally wouldn't crank it any more. If that loose chain jumps a tooth, you'll get a head full of bent valves in a hurry.

Taking the head off isn't a very daunting job. Carbs off, exhaust off, 2 cams (Do a shim measurement before taking off the cams and shim accordingly since the cams will be off anyway) and 12 head nuts. The only tricky part is to be absolutely sure everything is in time when re-assembling before you move the engine at all.

Tod