Hi,

I'm a new rider, and have found a 1998 xj600n for 450. The guy says its mehanically sound but that the cam tensioner rattle a bit.

How bad is this? How expensive would it be to fix, he's right about what wrong?

Also is it something you can fix with a service manual, or is it something that would make me have to take in to a garage?

Cheers

hello mate, dont worry its a piece of cake to sort out, they are a rachet type tensioner so they just need a good push to make them click into place,they are a touch hard to get to but once you have its all good, you need to take out the bolt from tensioner , think its 17/19 mm. inside this there is a spring , take that out,,fint a allen key or something like that which is slightly narrower than the spring, make sure its long enough to go all way into tesioner with enough hanging out end to push into towards engine, you need to push pretty hard ,, enough to hear it click!. one click should be enough to quieten it down nicely, if you have probs call me .. 07970 918855,,, good luck ,,, jim.

Cheers mate, ure a diamond. Still got buy the bike, once the guy's got it MOT'd. I'll let you know how I get on.

hello mate, dont worry its a piece of cake to sort out, they are a rachet type tensioner so they just need a good push to make them click into place,they are a touch hard to get to but once you have its all good, you need to take out the bolt from tensioner , think its 17/19 mm. inside this there is a spring , take that out,,fint a allen key or something like that which is slightly narrower than the spring, make sure its long enough to go all way into tesioner with enough hanging out end to push into towards engine, you need to push pretty hard ,, enough to hear it click!. one click should be enough to quieten it down nicely, if you have probs call me .. 07970 918855,,, good luck ,,, jim.

Hi Jim,

was reading your advice above. I have recently purchased a 650 Dragstar Classic (V Twin), it has a bit of a rattle about the engine, I suspect one of the the cam chains / tensioners. Bike has low miles 3500 but had been stood quite a while.

Can I manually adjust the tensioners as you have described? I have a manual of sorts and the tensioner certainly looks as you have described (spring and ratchet etc).

Cheers

Richie