New here what is all this about the Cam chain Tensioner

[wingysataday]

Help I'm a little scared about this thing. What can I do to prevent it?? I have almost 21000 miles on my bike and I am getting ready to sell my car and ride the bike for a while. So the bike will be my sole transportation. Can it be replaced???

[DD]

Yeah it can be replaced but why bother if it gives no problems. Most VTR's never have any problems, its just that ya here about the ones that do turn to custard from as less as 50km's .

[grinner]

Wing;
Advice straight from the mechanics mouth; Keep the carbs balanced every 6 months or so. This prevents any abnormal strain on the engine (more so with v-twins) so should prevent problems.
If in doubt, hold a screwdriver to the cct and the other end to your ear. steady revs will make a rattle through the screwdriver if there is a problem.

Like others say, some have problems, some don't. How much this is due to the carbs I couldn't say.

[tony.wilde1]

i phoned honda today and the guy said that they've definatly updated the cct's cos it was a recognised problem..hence the different part number...so...is this the end of tensioner woes?only way of knowing is buying one and taking it apart to see what theyve done..cos i dont expect they will tell me exactly what they done to improve them...cheers.

[DD]

i phoned honda today and the guy said that they've definatly updated the cct's cos it was a recognised problem..hence the different part number...so...is this the end of tensioner woes?only way of knowing is buying one and taking it apart to see what theyve done..cos i dont expect they will tell me exactly what they done to improve them...cheers.

as of when??? as Philm here had his CCT spit the dummy on the madian ride home =50km's only and his bike is a F3 (latest model I think)

[tony.wilde1]

im sorry thats all the info i have for now.all i typed is what i heard.he said if i buy them from a honda dealership,ill be getting the latest ones,but , he didnt know what exactly had been done to them.

[DD]

im sorry thats all the info i have for now.all i typed is what i heard.he said if i buy them from a honda dealership,ill be getting the latest ones,but , he didnt know what exactly had been done to them.

Well bloody hell, Honda need to pull finger on this one..... back in the 80's i brought a CX500 eurosport and it went through 3 CCT's and still Honda have the problem......... mind you if they sort it then thy'd sell no spairs huh

[bluesman]

come on, nobody noticed one simple matter??? CCTs are ABSOLUTELY SAME on most of Honda bikes. Now - how often you heard about CCT problems on CBR600 PC25? Never? correct... On Hornets? Never? Correct. This is not a CCT problem! Ask you friends with bikes of other makes - how their CCTs look like? And if you think that it is CCT - whoy don't you take one from Yamaha or Kawa and put it on -I mean, way CCTs designed you will fit them from one bike to another with small alterations. I doubt it will help.
CCT design are OK, it is "big 90 twin" flaw unless it is gear driven cams. I more and more think that it is desync between cylinders that does storm bad, I am sure, and if CCT went after 50 miles - then say thanks to our italian or spanish friends, who assembling bikes for Honda, and it is warranty matter.
CX500 was lemon for many other reason - basic design of engine had flaw. 2 sets of rockers loading single camshaft and pushrods....
I had quite few mechanical experiences with CX500 and CX650. Camchafts on those bikes was wearing faster than any other bikes ...that bike was designed when somebody in Honda smoke too much weed...

[tony.wilde1]

well..i have to disagree..IT IS A CCT PROB!all of the people whos cct's have gone bang is down to one simple thing.THE SPRING SNAPPING.Seems to me that some springs in a few cct's are snapping due to good old metal fatigue=bad heat treatment on a few of them..or...age..hence the rarity of it happening.the only way honda could improve them is to incorporate a ratchet system like,for example,a gpz500 and the like.then..if the spring goes the tensioner cant back off.If i dont get any feedback from honda...and i dont think i will...ill buy one and take it apart to see what theyve"improved" til then ,everytime we ride its fingers crossed time..which clearly isnt good enough.cheers.

[DD]

T.W1: thats how I believe it to be, no other bike maker uses a silly spring for the cct, they use a ratchet system so as when the power comes on it dosent compress the spring but works a ratchet that dosent flex like a spring (if that makes sence)

Bluesman: OTT man, the CX500 was a brilient bike I have had 4 from the 'a' to the Turbo one I hot rodded (stop laughing) and anothe had over 100,000km's on it and none gave any troulble at all.... but the EC (eurosport) did, because it had a auto tensioning cct.... it kept too much tension on the chain and it wouldent use all the movement up that it had.
The CX500 was never a lemon and never will be "basic design of engine had flaw. 2 sets of rockers loading single camshaft and pushrods" what diference is that to any basic car engine from the 120y to the 350 chev???

[tony.wilde1]

just heard from honda.they wont tell me what theyve done or when im affraid but they say the cct's have been updated 5 times!!!!so the latest tensioner has had 5 updates??? sounds incredible really.first ive heard..make of that what you will..cheers

[kingster]

My front CCT went a couple of weeks ago. The brand new ones look EXACTLY the same, so unless they have changed the heat treatment of the spring, then I can't se what these 5 changes are.

Funny tho, the back CCt has lasted 50,000kms (import) and the front one has gone twice, once at 25,000 and again at 50,000.

No permanent damage, but a pain in the butt to fix as camchain jumped over inlet cam and so had to fix that too!

I used a spare CCT (from my spare engine) while waiting for the new ones to arrive, so will replace both CCT's at the weekend with the new ones just to be on the safe side.

But, as someone on the VTR_list once said, the CCT's are a Martini item, they can go Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere!

However, I will now recognise the distinctive noise I heard a few days before it finally went, and will fix it before it goes plop. The CCT does have a kind of "radial ratchet" system that will hold it in place, but vibration will let it slip back without the spring tension holding it radially, so I reckon you have a very short window of opportunity to fix it once the spring snaps.

Kingster

[bluesman]

T.W1: thats how I believe it to be, no other bike maker uses a silly spring for the cct, they use a ratchet system so as when the power comes on it dosent compress the spring but works a ratchet that dosent flex like a spring (if that makes sence)

Bluesman: OTT man, the CX500 was a brilient bike I have had 4 from the 'a' to the Turbo one I hot rodded (stop laughing) and anothe had over 100,000km's on it and none gave any troulble at all.... but the EC (eurosport) did, because it had a auto tensioning cct.... it kept too much tension on the chain and it wouldent use all the movement up that it had.
The CX500 was never a lemon and never will be "basic design of engine had flaw. 2 sets of rockers loading single camshaft and pushrods" what diference is that to any basic car engine from the 120y to the 350 chev???

Well, you compare it to Chevvy, which is not considered exemplary engine here - you see, that's so "geographical" thing.
Compare it to BMW inline 6 and guys here will go "Oh yeah!"
Anyway - just joking

Of course all this is just IMHO, don't take it as I am trying to convince anybody
I think I used wrong term - lemon stands for something that gives you failures and bad suprises right? Sorry - English my third language...then actually I meant something else.
I tell you what I heard from old Honda guys why CX500 was a failure in Western Europe - people were spoiled by then No, no, seriously, look - what was in kitty in Germany for examle? CB750, then CB900, Kawa Zed's etc. - and then Honda had a go at MotoGuzzi
I am not saying it was not reliable bike, I am saying with this engine scheme you can not expect any suprises in power delivery...

Only country that had a wee bit of sales for CX500 was Germany, and then it was still a failure, cos on top of very average power and heavy handling it was not ghmmm...not a beauty queen...
I heard that quite a few of them been sold in UK, but certainly not here (Belgium France, Netherlands, Germany)...

Suprisingly, GL650 Silverwingwas taken much better, because of that ugly fairing like "goldwing for poor"

About camshafts ...
I am originally from Ukraine (moving around because of my work for big US company), for first 4 years of my biking experience I NEVER had bike with less than 50 000 km, and we had to change camshafts in 4 of 6 CX-s (3 CX500 and 1 GL) that people bought with their last money in Germany and spent ages to get it through customs - our motorcycling life was quite hard there.
And in all those cases conclusion of well known race mechanics in Kiev (there was only 2 guys who was REALLY good at it) was: because of engine design, with OHV and pushrods.
I don't have a clue, how reliable this bike was from new and I totally beleive you it was good, but for example CB750 of my friend in Kiev did 160 000 km before he took it for engine revamp, cos he was afraid of camdrive failure that will cost him too much...
We rode our bikes intil natural death, cos we had no money and no shops to buy something else than Jawa or Ural. So, for us - CX500 was a lemon

[tony.wilde1]

kingster...did you take the new one apart to see what was inside?just wondered mate.. and if you did was there any evidence of a change?thanks.

[kingster]

kingster...did you take the new one apart to see what was inside?just wondered mate.. and if you did was there any evidence of a change?thanks.

Will do a "side by side" comparison tonight/tomorrow m8 and if there are any changes, I'll photograph them and post the results.

But, on a quick first inspection, and on comparing the method of operation, they seemed identical. However, I guess a proper detailed look is in order.

Kingster