Sorry for the silence! I've had some problems on the way .. a mate of mine snapped one of my sparkplugs when turning right rather than left
![Duh! :duh:](http://forums.banditalley.net/Smileys/banditalley/whatwasithinking.gif)
. Also one of my valve clearance adjuster nuts was dead and I needed to buy new ones.
Well anyway.. I had a mechanic listen to my rattle and he immediately said it was the automatic cam chain tensioner.
I decided to buy a manual tensioner, also when reading about here were some said the automatic tensioner would reach its end before the cam chain was actually worn.
Well I measured the cam chain and it seems fine according to the manual. However maybe I should've also checked the timing marks. But I guess the timing won't go off critically as long as the chain is within this limit? :
![](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22072961/MF/2013-02-02%2019.56.34.jpg)
So fast forward to solving the stupid sparkplug problem and getting new valve clearance adjuster nuts:
![](https://dl.dropbox.com/u/22072961/MF/2013-02-17%2017.05.02.jpg)
I just did a 30min ride and she runs really good and pulls like it should. I haven't heard the rattle since changing the tensioner so so far so good!! I really hope this solved the problem.
I just hope I tensioned the tensioner right.. What I did now was tension it in such a way that it doesn't rattle idling and revving it. I have no idea how thin the margins are on a good tensioned cam chain. It's now maybe 1/4 turn tighter from the point it stops rattling. Does the chain get tighter or looser as the engine warms up?
Thanks