Anyone else's Gen II cam chain tensioner making noise? You would have thought Kawasaki would have fixed the problem but at 13,500 I can hear mine rattling at start up.

I thought I remember reading something wierd about them moving it inside engine for more reliabilty but maybe not.

What is it about KHI and CCTs? They've only had like 30 years to come up with a working design, my 2011 ZX-10R CCT has to be manually reset periodically, spring is too weak to advance to the next tooth. My '06 14 makes the CCT rattle on startup but quiet as a church mouse after that so I don't mess with it, been doing it for 8 years now.

You're probably on the verge of the circlip grabbing the next rung.

Not after 8 years, hag. The tensioner is moving back and forth with a wire ring that needs to be bent tighter around the shaft so it can lock in place but will never. It's oil pressure assist from then on keeping it quiet. Pull tensioner and check the wire loops. No doubt same=same internals?

That goes right back to pulling tensioner when the valves are being checked. You pull tensioner to pull cams. Disturbing again that it's one more minor function when setting up the tensioner to reinstall it. Thanks for the heads-up. Yours might be the first tensioner complaint for a gen2.

Yours might be the first tensioner complaint for a gen2.

I'm inclined to agree.

My Ninjee is on the verge of turning over 30K and cam chain slap is virtually constant between the startup and normal operating temp conditions throughout.

1. I spin the rear wheel in 1st backwards just a touch. This pushes the tensnioner slipper back against the tensioner.
2. I remove the tensoiner and tighten rings around the plunger. I have to take the tensioner apart to get to the wire rings, but it has to be done. That is to pull the loop tighter, as the wire cross past each other. And with the wires having certain bends at each end of the wire, remember which way that wire was as in direction of the wire ends. Flipping the other way may not matter, but at least you remembered which side that one wire end with the fancy bends was on this side of the tensioner meaning.
3. I reversed my slipper arm so I am going to reinstall the tensioner in again for this reason. My slipper is going to bang into the tensioner housing and not jump a tooth. Why? Because if you think about it, you start the bike up with the tensioner making that noise it is moving all the ways back into the body. Therefore, I now screw the tensioner into the head, but do not tighten the tensioner down. It rocks just so much if I pull it out and that says very few threads left to turn at the tensioner assembly.
4. I now snap the rear wheel backwards. Why? So I push the tensioner plunger in; the ring expands out into that cavity groove; the plunger is now free to fly forward. When that happens, my tensioner tightens up against the theads remaining.
5. I just snapped the tensioner into the body as if the book says to take a long screwdriver and push the slipper arm so you do the same thing to the plunger holding ring. I now tighten my tensioner bolts and my gap is less than sticking a business card in the middle of the tensioner and head block.
6. I now move the wheel forward and this sends the plunger past the alligator back or those locking grooves in the plunger. See, if I didn't have that extra gap in the reverse cranking first, how could I tighten my tensioner bolts on that other side of the tensioner tightening.

Conclusion: What have you got to lose but pull the valve cover and manually adjust it that way. But the way I see it, the nose of the tensioner being that far in as it is, there is no way the chain can slip over the teeth where that nose is keeping that slipper from moving as far back as pulling the cam chain up and off when it takes removing the tensioner to pull chain off the cam anyway. Make [loophole] sense?

It's not rocket science. It's meguyverizm.

Signed,

Ya bunch-a----shits!!

And I challenge hag and Kruz to 'getherdone.' You are both mechanically inclined to do this simple R&R of that wire repair.

Section 5-16. How do you like our more [internally] enclosed tensioner plunger assy? Our rings are the same, just a different ending tip of the bends so as not to spin in the groove its in. Same float, different boat. In other words, no trick pony difference, I can meguyver a wire on both gens with the same approach to the R&R'ing of the tensioners too.

I'm that confident in theory of that loophole. For sure I've done the wire work and that's a snap (pun intended).

Speaking of CCTs, as mentioned my '06 rattles the cam chain for a few seconds then quiets down. I can tell when the oil is getting thin and ready to change as it rattles a little longer. Had something happen the other day that's never happened before. I tapped the starter and let off too quick before the engine was fully started, the thing was making that horrible chain slap noise and it wouldn't come up to idle speed, just kept rattling and chugging. I shut it off and restarted and she was instantly purring. Sounded like it was hitting on only two cylinders during that entire episode.

I'm not buyin the rattling CCT on the 2nd Gens.Could it happen?I really don't know...if it IS...factory defect in assembly or somethin.NOT normal at all with the 2nd Gens.

First off...how many miles?"You would have thought Kawasaki would have fixed the problem"...they did on mine;)(come to think of it...my beloved 2012(may she rest in pieces)NEVER clickety-clacked either.BUT...I'm only at 16K so far.Yours did this from purchase?If so...you 'should' have run her right back and got it replaced.

Hag writes..."30K and cam chain slap is virtually constant between the startup and normal operating temp conditions throughout"...you mean...it's RATTLING?.Hell,I've run the sh*& outta mine so far...not a peep of cam chain slap...EVER.What's yer secret;)?

* Last updated by: Grn14 on 9/6/2014 @ 10:51 PM *

I knew i shouldve worded that diffrtently. It's a tickety-tick.

That aint cam chain noise...that's VALVESLOL!!!

Oh really? Explain.

It was a joke...just a joke.

So... can someone please explain something to me regarding the "generations"? I thought the 06-07 was Gen 1, 08-11 Gen 2, and 12+ Gen...3?

I've got an 08 and have started hearing a something that sounds like cam chain noise on startup, goes away after a couple of mins or at slightly higher RPM. Was thinking about installing an APE manual cam chain tension this winter.

Think engine family change changes the gens.

06-07 Gen1/a
08-09 Gen1/b
10-11 Gen1/c

12-13 Gen2/a
14-15 Gen2/b

Gen1 - Same engine and most parts can be interchanged.
Gen2 - Different engine family and only gen2 engine parts are interchangeable between each other.

Gen1 - CCT is universal between gen1's.
Gen2 - Does not interchange CCT's, but only between gens of said engine family. Different bodies.

Gen1 - Has a guitar string type of spring wire. The wire bows out. The tensioner is oil assist and quiets.
Gen2 - Has the same design, same principal of wire needs to wrap tighter around tensioner plunger an stops.

Anyone else's Gen II cam chain tensioner making noise? You would have thought Kawasaki would have fixed the problem but at 13,500 I can hear mine rattling at start up

If I started mine at 13,500, RPM, I would expect a noise too!

Kidding.