My 100K 1150GSA was making such a racket I could hear it even with plugs in on the motorway. I got a bit obsessed and tuned in to the noise and it was driving me bonkers. I changed the tensioner but it didn't fix it so I decided to change the timing chains. Here is a quick run through. It may all end in disaster in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere but it is working currently and I live for the present
I contacted Iwis the OE chain makers in Germany and said what I wanted to do. I wanted to split and join the chains like the older bikes could do. They obviously didn't advocate that in this health and safety, litigious society but they gave me the number of an ex IWis man running a company in the UK using the Iwis chains. He was much more helpful
I had already bought one chain from Motorworks but that it tuns out, not surprisingly, is a cheap Czech copy. I phoned
Andrew Forsdick on 01299 403688 (Drive Solutions)
Really nice bloke. Worked for IWis for a long time (they used to be called Jwis?) and was pretty high up. Certainly knew his onions and sells Iwis chains for cheaper than Motorworks sells the copies
. He splits/joins them and uses them in Racing Astons so I think he can speak with authority regards this approach. He sold me a chain and made up a splitter for me (£20!) by grinding the pin on a tool and sent it with the chain. He pre split the chain for me to start and talked me through it.
If your exhaust head bolts come off easily you could do this in an hour easily. Mine didn't and I had to get them spark eroded
Take the head off, use the splitter to break the chain and push the pin nearly out. Forget about the timing at this stage, just ditch the cam cog and worry about that later.
Then join the old to the new by pushing the pin back through. Mark it with a dab of paint.
Then just turn the engine over and feed the chain through till the marked link comes through
Push the old pin out and push the new pin through. Hold a lump hammer on the back and smartly tap the head with a centre punch to flatten it a touch. Ignore the captured timing cog here - that was me trying to be clever but the timing doesn't work exactly as I thought so its easier to remove it then set the timing later.
Then set the opposite pot to TDC/compression, put the cog in so as the notch is down and the arrows are horizontal. Im my experience thats easier as the arrows are not exactly level on tdc compression - each to their own!. Once that is done, put your finger in the cog and rotate to TCD compression on this side and secure the cog with a tie.
Assemble, press start, listen and smile
So, had the chain stretched? A little, maybe 2 mm?
But the lateral play was much more evident. Here is the old one
and here is the new one
Please excuse what might come across as a 'teaching granny' approach. It may have been explained before but I couldn't find it. The chains are obviously sold as continuous and it would be a nightmare job to change them 'properly' but an hour a side and a bit of confidence it all it takes. As I said before, this might all end with metal bits sticking out in weird places but it was an interesting experience none the less
I contacted Iwis the OE chain makers in Germany and said what I wanted to do. I wanted to split and join the chains like the older bikes could do. They obviously didn't advocate that in this health and safety, litigious society but they gave me the number of an ex IWis man running a company in the UK using the Iwis chains. He was much more helpful
I had already bought one chain from Motorworks but that it tuns out, not surprisingly, is a cheap Czech copy. I phoned
Andrew Forsdick on 01299 403688 (Drive Solutions)
Really nice bloke. Worked for IWis for a long time (they used to be called Jwis?) and was pretty high up. Certainly knew his onions and sells Iwis chains for cheaper than Motorworks sells the copies
. He splits/joins them and uses them in Racing Astons so I think he can speak with authority regards this approach. He sold me a chain and made up a splitter for me (£20!) by grinding the pin on a tool and sent it with the chain. He pre split the chain for me to start and talked me through it.
If your exhaust head bolts come off easily you could do this in an hour easily. Mine didn't and I had to get them spark eroded
Take the head off, use the splitter to break the chain and push the pin nearly out. Forget about the timing at this stage, just ditch the cam cog and worry about that later.
Then join the old to the new by pushing the pin back through. Mark it with a dab of paint.
Then just turn the engine over and feed the chain through till the marked link comes through
Push the old pin out and push the new pin through. Hold a lump hammer on the back and smartly tap the head with a centre punch to flatten it a touch. Ignore the captured timing cog here - that was me trying to be clever but the timing doesn't work exactly as I thought so its easier to remove it then set the timing later.
Then set the opposite pot to TDC/compression, put the cog in so as the notch is down and the arrows are horizontal. Im my experience thats easier as the arrows are not exactly level on tdc compression - each to their own!. Once that is done, put your finger in the cog and rotate to TCD compression on this side and secure the cog with a tie.
Assemble, press start, listen and smile
So, had the chain stretched? A little, maybe 2 mm?
But the lateral play was much more evident. Here is the old one
and here is the new one
Please excuse what might come across as a 'teaching granny' approach. It may have been explained before but I couldn't find it. The chains are obviously sold as continuous and it would be a nightmare job to change them 'properly' but an hour a side and a bit of confidence it all it takes. As I said before, this might all end with metal bits sticking out in weird places but it was an interesting experience none the less
No noises anymore?
