Auto CCT question...

[Bonz]

What shouldn't I mess with? Not sure which aspect of the post you are talking about?

The SG has just over 20,500 miles, the G has 30,270 with a 160 mph speedo a p.o. put on, so I have no idea the real miles.

[motoman]

I dont think you should mess with it with only ~25K miles. I have ~52K on mine and no worries. Im sure others can say the same...

Mileage has little to do with the waltdisneydesigned POS manual tensioner. Pretty much guarentee your stock tensioner doesn't stay put. If in doubt, test it yourself by doing the adjustment, go ride a few miles with a couple strong decels in the mix, them come back and check adjustment again as per procedure. Just to give you an idea how well they hold after a few decades of load, adjusted mine, and while on center stand gave throttle a couple quick blips and adjuster rod was shoved back to previous indentation in flat part of shaft. Oh, it held fine when bike was new, but upwards of 20,000mi. I noticed I seemed to be doing the adjustment more often than normal. Back then, I hadn't a clue as to what was goin' on, just re-adjusted and motor smoothed up and eliminated the slight hang idle. The hang idle was always the clue for me to re-adjust the chain tensioner back then.......ignorance was bliss back then.

[WMarshy]

Mileage has little to do with the waltdisneydesigned POS manual tensioner. Pretty much guarentee your stock tensioner doesn't stay put. If in doubt, test it yourself by doing the adjustment, go ride a few miles with a couple strong decels in the mix, them come back and check adjustment again as per procedure. Just to give you an idea how well they hold after a few decades of load, adjusted mine, and while on center stand gave throttle a couple quick blips and adjuster rod was shoved back to previous indentation in flat part of shaft. Oh, it held fine when bike was new, but upwards of 20,000mi. I noticed I seemed to be doing the adjustment more often than normal. Back then, I hadn't a clue as to what was goin' on, just re-adjusted and motor smoothed up and eliminated the slight hang idle. The hang idle was always the clue for me to re-adjust the chain tensioner back then.......ignorance was bliss back then.

Sorry, meant to clarify... I was saying if the bike only has ~25K miles then no need to replace the chain as there are plenty of other bikes with original chains with many more miles on them. I didnt realize he was talking about his other bike that has unknown miles on it, I thought he was talking about the one with low miles... I am pro ACCT regardless the miles or condition of the bike and see the original CCT as a design flaw.

I would set the crank to C and check the dots on the cams. If they are out of phase then it warrants replacement. How much out of phase is relative to how many beers you drank and the angle of the dangle... No exact tolerance that I know of, what ever your wallet and personal time you can afford will be the driving factor. Not as big of a deal to take down one bike for service when you have a second one.

[Bonz]

Yeah, on the G I was planning on setting to "C" and checking the dots, that is as good or better a way to see if the chain needs replacing as any "subjective" check of how far the chain will lift off the sprocket.

FWIW, the stock cct on my lower mile SG had only .25-.30" of adjustment left in the plunger, but the chain is normal sounding. How much adjustment do those stock cct's start out with? i.e if I have .25-.30" left, what did it start at? So I can get a relative amount of how much adjustment has been done up to this point before putting the auto cct in a few days ago.

[motoman]

Yeah, on the G I was planning on setting to "C" and checking the dots, that is as good or better a way to see if the chain needs replacing as any "subjective" check of how far the chain will lift off the sprocket.

FWIW, the stock cct on my lower mile SG had only .25-.30" of adjustment left in the plunger, but the chain is normal sounding. How much adjustment do those stock cct's start out with? i.e if I have .25-.30" left, what did it start at? So I can get a relative amount of how much adjustment has been done up to this point before putting the auto cct in a few days ago.

Just look at the marks left for and aft. Point A to point B will have several from chain kicking it back and you re-adjusting, thinking chain links are wearing causing "stretch". Where it starts out at.......you'll have to ask those little Yammy engineers huddled in the corner over there.

[bikerphil]

Yeah, on the G I was planning on setting to "C" and checking the dots, that is as good or better a way to see if the chain needs replacing as any "subjective" check of how far the chain will lift off the sprocket.

You probably meant to say "T" right? The dots won't line up with their marks on "C". FWIW, I have almost 80K miles on my SF original chain with ACCT and bike still runs fine, <knock>, YMMV.

[jetmechmarty]

My ACCT went in with a new chain. The new chain was tight going on. When I installed the tensioner, I did not hear it extend. I expected to hear/feel those teeth clicking. If it extended, it wasn't much.

[Bonz]

Yeah, the other "C"...

[Bonz]

Adding to what jetmech said, when I put the auto cct on the 80G (with the noisy cam chain) I heard plunger ratchet out a good bit when I put the spring and bolt in. On the 80SG with a non-suspect cam chain I did not hear ratcheting when I put the spring and bolt in. The ratcheting is very audible, so I am sure that is another tell-tale sign that the 80G needs a cam chain.

Two things:
-Both stock cct's were extended to the same length more or less, with .2-.3" of travel remaining. Extended length would seem to mean very little, and another sign of the wishy-washy ability of the stock cct to do it's job correctly and consistently.

-I had reset each auto cct with the plunger all the way in, so it is a relative and fairly valid comparison in my mind.

[Rasputin]

Well not being one to rock the boat or be sarcastic. (As I was in my last reply.)
I would wonder a bit about who has measured the travel of any of these supposed ACCT's. I know I posted about the matching numbers from boatnet's site, But I never have actually measured the alternatives for travel. I think maybe we need to do some measuring as a group and see if the travel allowed by each is the same or limited in some way.
Sure they may fit in the hole and seal well but... how long are they stock and how far will they extend has not been discussed to the best of my short memory.
There is a possibility that a (for instance) Raptor ACCT has a longer body and would not necessarily ratchet in very much where a Venture on could ratchet in far more.
As the ratcheting sound, yes it is very audible. Just how much one tensioner will move, or how far in it does extend, compared to another is still an unknown to me.
I have bought only venture parts for my bikes but there are many others that will apparently fit or sort of. I have a couple of venture ACCT's here so I can compare my results with anyone who has one of the alternative ones.
Another note to consider is how long are the existing bolts that attach the ACCT. I know the venture ones will not take the stock XS11 bolts without leaking. They are shorter and need to be so the bolt does not bottom out.

[Bonz]

Comparing the external portion of the virago 535 tensioner (vision) to the stock CCT, the bolt hole tabs are the same thickness as stock, as was the raptor tensioner, so I reused the stock bolts despite the auto CCTs coming with bolts. No issue with either of those tensioners in that regard.

Comparing either fully compressed auto CCT at installation with the stock CCT extended as it came out of the engine, there was a crap ton of difference in length, so in either case (G and SG) the auto CCT should have extended audibly if there was a lot of slack to take up, as was the case with the G. The SG did not ratchet when the spring and bolt were installed so that plays well with the surmisal the cam chain is in good nick (no Brit in me, but love the lingo). In this case the auto cct body length is not a factor in comparing the overall compressed length which is how I am evaluating it.

I put the auto CCT in each bike close enough in time to each other that I can say the spring tension/strength was very similar between them.

The main difference is the vision tensioner put the plunger square in the middle of the metal "pad" where the raptor tensioner plunger is offset to the right side of the pad as you look in the tensioner mounting hole on the engine. Definitely a noticeable difference.

I had to hog out the vision tensioner top bolt hole a good bit more than the raptor top hole. Probably use a vision tensioner if I do another one given the choice simply because the plunger is centered on the pad inside the engine compared to the raptor tensioner.

Used orange high temp sealer on both, no leaks.

Hope that can be helpful toward more info on the auto CCT.

[Rasputin]

Just was throwing out Ideas as I know the stock venture adjusters will not fit with the stock bolts. One must either shorten them or use the stock (venture) Bolts.

[Bonz]

Yeah, all these observations are good to put out there so they can be put into the collective knowledge pool. I am sure some of what I observed has been said before, but it's good to keep things talked about.