impact of valve clearance being too low

[Eveready1100]

Mate, don't stress too much about the cam chain measurements. I'm on my fifth one now, as I'd been replacing them whenever I'd hear too much noise coming from the top end that doing the cam chain adjustment wouldn't shut it up a bit. We've only discovered recently that only the genuine and DID branded camchains are the proper length. Most of the cheaper aftermarket camchains , like I used to buy, are actually longer than the originals, up to 2.5mm in one instance, so by fitting one of these would use up nearly half of the available range of adjustment with a new chain!
I wish I'd known this from the beginning. Would've saved a lot of money and time spent working on the bike instead of riding it!

[motoman]

Eveready, be aware also that the stock adjuster has a REGULAR tendency of slipping back back where it was previously located. This is caused from a hard decell which puts ALOT of load on front of that timing chain. This issue was also a problem for motorcycle magazine testers when bike first came on market in 1978, namely Pee Wee Gleason(rest his soul). This issue was noted when Pee Wee, who did all manufacturers testing for 1/4 mile times and speeds. He was a professional rider on bikes who was always choosen to run quarter mile times and speeds, and himself weighing 110lbs. soaking wet.
So with that, ALOT of members here including myself have swapped out that inferior adjuster. Although there are several self adjusting cam chain adjusters that have worked fine, the best option one to use comes from Yamaha's 1200 V-4 Venture. This bike, produced from 1983 till(can't remember for sure) used two of those adjuster, one for front two cylinders and one on rear two cylinders. If one can access both of those, you have an extra for future use. These self- adjusters STAY in place when self-adjusting takes place, keeping cam timing dead-on ALL the time.