Phil wrote: Yes I'm concerned that, even with 10mm cut from the spring, that it bears too heavily on the cam chain.
Pasted from another thread on here on which I commented on about a year back:
"I personally have been swayed by new information regarding shortening the ZZR CCT spring & whether it increases tension force, this was posted by Ian on the international Z1300 Facebook page after he carried out tests:
"well WoW the standard cct spring is putting 650 grams of force on the chain at a length of 52 mm
the zzr spring is putting over 1030 grams of force at the same compression with 10mm cut off, that was taken at the end of its travel which is 52mm so if you cam chain isnt that slack then more force will be applied.
compressing the ZZR CCT by 10mm nearly doubled the force applied to 2000 grams.
the standard CCT only went up to 920 grams at 10mm compression.
Phil i would be interested in how much force you will get with a full length spring.
think ill stick with the standard CCT with modified with a back stop."
Lauri Nurminen quoted:
"I use the original tensioner, just change the M6 bolt for one 15mm longer. Every 2000 km or so I loosen the bolt, let the adjuster do its thing and then lock it with the longer bolt. The tensioner can not fail when locked in place. Costs only what longer bolt costs."
Interesting numbers and thanks for reposting them. I can honestly say that this is the first time I've seen the numbers and it confirms for me that the manual tensioner is the way to go for me. That said, it's not the way for all and an automatic system is more preferred or in the case of the modded stock tensioners, an automatic adjustment with a manual locking system is best.
Obviously, the spring used in the ZZR tensioner having almost double the force of the KZ tensioner spring is concerning. I like the ratcheting design of the ZZR tensioner over the locking ball system of the KZ and it would just take some "engineering" to come up with a more appropriate spring to simulate the same force as the KZ spring. Some of the recent posts regarding the tensioner rubber load wheel and nylon guide gear would support the concerns with the tensioner system (either stock or modded)
I also believe that the problems with the rubber load wheel on the tensioner should be better addressed. Rubber parts that operate in heated oil should be changed out on a periodic basis due to hardening of the rubber material.
