A3 Z1300 resto in Oz

Postie delivered some goodies so I can get cracking again.
Front MC kit, front/rear caliper kits, front/rear wheel bearing/seal kits, front/rear pads, fork seals, headstem bearings and new tacho cable.
Also got some headlights ears (aftermarket ones) the other day.
Best I get cracking again. Also need to rebuild carbs again as they're gummed up again......

Finally getting some work done.
Front end is off. Headstem is out for new bearings and seals.
Forks to be rebuilt as well as brakes.

Fitted APE cam tensioner. How do you check it is tightened sufficiently? I read somewhere that someone chucked theirs in 2nd and ran the wheel around till they hit the slack point and tightened from there. I can't get the bloody thing to move by the wheel in 2nd. Any other thoughts?

Will chuck some pics up later.

For starting this process, remove the camshaft cover so you can look at the cam chain and remove the right side generator cover to gain access to the crankshaft.
For initial set up I rotate the crankshaft clockwise to take up the slack in the camchain. Ckeck the cam chain between the 2 camshafts and ensure that there is no slack in the chain between the 2 camshafts. I say this because as the camshafts rotate, the spring force from the valves on the camshaft can rotate the camshaft forwards and backwards depending on where the lobes are in relation to the camshaft followers.
Once your satisfied that all of the slack has been taken up on the camchain at the front of the engine and between the 2 camshafts, unlock the locknut on the chain tensioner and tighten up the adjuster bolt with your fingers and just take up the slack in the cam chain. Lock down the lock nut and your done. Reassemble the covers.

When doing your periodic maintenance and want to check the tensioner adjustment, I fire up the engine and then when the engine temperature just starts to come up, unlock the tensioner lock nut and then adjust in the tensioner bolt with your fingers until you feel the tensioner bolt just start to get tight. This is a light finger touch here not as tight as you can get it with your fingers. You'll probably feel a bit of shuddering on the bolt and that's just a bit of irregular stretch in the chain. not to worry about it.

The whole idea here is to take up the majority of the slack in the chain so that the chain is not bouncing off of the nylon tensioning gear and enough slack so that when you back off the throttle the valve timing stays resonably close to where it should be. If you tighten it up too much, you'll prematurely wear out the nylon tensioning gear unless you upgraded to the Liska gear and or prematurely wear/stretch the timing chain.

I prefer to do this "running adjustment" when the engine is cool and not at operating temperature, reason being when the cam chain is cold and will be at its shortest dimension. If you do this "on the fly adjustment" when the engine is hot, the chain will be at its longest due to the heat, then when everything cools off, the chain will get really tight and you now are running the cam chain hard into the nylon gear.

This whole theory supports the removal of the "10mm" from the spring when/if you install the automatic tensioner from the ZX engine. Your trying to adjust out the majority of the slack, not trying to run the chain tight.

Awesome. Thanks for the detailed write up!

Some pics.
The delightful mess that was the headstem bearings. Had to grind the inner race off that bottom bearing.
Gotta grab some fork oil so i cn rebuild them legs and put the front back on, plus get a valve cover gasket.

Oh yeah. Had to grind off some tabs on the steering lock. They had welded extensions on them, i assume to restrict movement so it didn't foul on the LaParisienne fairings.