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I recently rebuilt the engine of my 78 XS11 and it seems that everything else wants to break now that the engine is fixed. One of those things was the Cam Chain Tensioner. It leaked quite a bit no matter what I did. Recently, the bottom half of it cracked.The bike went from having a runny nose to a bloody one.
That crack ended up getting some JB Weld that held (most) of the oil in.
A while back I was reading about tensioner swapouts. Seems some of the guys were swapping CCTs from Ventures and Visions. Since my tensioner was jacked up, I took a gamble and ordered an automatic tensioner from a Yamaha Raptor 660
Has the same offset as the XS11 tensioner
It's a spring loaded ratchet. It looks almost identical to the Vision tensioner.
I got this thing off of Ebay for $9. Free shipping too. I figured for that little money, it was worth trying. Turns out, it worked pretty much perfectly.
Here's what I did:
1. Removed timing cover
2. Turned engine clockwise with a hex key (6mm) until the "C" mark lined up with the pointer
3. Removed the 2 hex bolts (5mm) from the cam chain tensioner
4. Removed the cam chain tensioner and paper gasket from the engine
5. Loosened and removed large bolt (19mm I think) and underlying spring from front of Yamaha Raptor auto tensioner.
6. Depressed the ratchet arm on the tensioner and pushed the plunger all the way back in.
The ratcheting arm is on the bottom left of the picture. Note the copper washer on the bolt. No more runny nose.
7. Put the gasket on the body of the auto tensioner and inserted into engine. Secured the body of the tensioner with the 2 hex bolts from the old tensioner.
8. Inserted the spring and bolt and tightened down.
I just painted that engine yet it's so dirty already.
You'll kind of hear the plunger ratchet into place before you even get the bolt screwed in. The body bolted on to my engine with hardly any resistance. I did use a rattlegun though. Not much wins a fight against one of those.
Everything seems to be working fine. Looking forward to not hearing that slapping cam chain noise. It'll be interesting to see how the auto adjust works out. The only thing I'm worried about is forgetting to check on it. The plunger on the old tensioner probably had about and 1/8" until it was fully extended. I'm guessing it's almost time for a new cam chain. This new tensioner will extend much farther than the original one and has the potential to let my chain stretch too far. Guess I'll have to keep an eye on it.
Seriously though, $9 auto cct, Yamaha Raptor
That crack ended up getting some JB Weld that held (most) of the oil in.
A while back I was reading about tensioner swapouts. Seems some of the guys were swapping CCTs from Ventures and Visions. Since my tensioner was jacked up, I took a gamble and ordered an automatic tensioner from a Yamaha Raptor 660
Has the same offset as the XS11 tensioner
It's a spring loaded ratchet. It looks almost identical to the Vision tensioner.
I got this thing off of Ebay for $9. Free shipping too. I figured for that little money, it was worth trying. Turns out, it worked pretty much perfectly.
Here's what I did:
1. Removed timing cover
2. Turned engine clockwise with a hex key (6mm) until the "C" mark lined up with the pointer
3. Removed the 2 hex bolts (5mm) from the cam chain tensioner
4. Removed the cam chain tensioner and paper gasket from the engine
5. Loosened and removed large bolt (19mm I think) and underlying spring from front of Yamaha Raptor auto tensioner.
6. Depressed the ratchet arm on the tensioner and pushed the plunger all the way back in.
The ratcheting arm is on the bottom left of the picture. Note the copper washer on the bolt. No more runny nose.
7. Put the gasket on the body of the auto tensioner and inserted into engine. Secured the body of the tensioner with the 2 hex bolts from the old tensioner.
8. Inserted the spring and bolt and tightened down.
I just painted that engine yet it's so dirty already.
You'll kind of hear the plunger ratchet into place before you even get the bolt screwed in. The body bolted on to my engine with hardly any resistance. I did use a rattlegun though. Not much wins a fight against one of those.
Everything seems to be working fine. Looking forward to not hearing that slapping cam chain noise. It'll be interesting to see how the auto adjust works out. The only thing I'm worried about is forgetting to check on it. The plunger on the old tensioner probably had about and 1/8" until it was fully extended. I'm guessing it's almost time for a new cam chain. This new tensioner will extend much farther than the original one and has the potential to let my chain stretch too far. Guess I'll have to keep an eye on it.
Seriously though, $9 auto cct, Yamaha Raptor
) it was a tight fit as far as the mounting holes but I didn't have to ream them. It probably would have gone on easier if I had reamed the holes a little. The spring tension seemed to be about the same as the venture ACCT.
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