85 Nighthawk 650 Cam Chain Noise

[fadingfastsd]

Hey guys,

thanks to everybody for all the help in my previous post about the Seafoam issue. I'm now moving on to solving the cam chain buzz on my bike. I heard that this was a common problem on these bikes (Nighthawks), and I had a mechanic friend of mine listen to it and he confirmed it. Its a buzzing noise that occurs around 3k RPMS or so, and its pretty annoying. I've looked up info in my Clymer manual, and it seems this model has the Automatic cam chain tensioner (The bike is an 85 Honda Nighthawk 650 sc). I didn't find a specific process in the manual for solving this problem. If the tensioner is automatic, how I adjust it to fix this? Is there a part that would need replacing? I have alot of mechanical experience, mainly w/ 2 strokes and dirtbikes, and I'm not gonna lie, i'm a little intimidated tearing into my first big 4cylinder, but you've gotta learn somehow right?

Anyways, any pictures, tips, help, anything would be appreciated. I'm not afraid of doing this job myself, I just want to be well informed before I tear this thing apart.


Also, I'm doing the fork seals this week, and tips on those? What can I use as a seal driver to seat the seals? I've heard a proper sized PVC pipe???

Thanks again!!!

[bonusmark]

I plan on taking the valve cover off sooner or later to see what I can see...I can't tell from the Clymer manual if I'll even be able to get to the tensioner with just the cover off, so I guess I'm going to be prepared to remove the camshafts, just in case. I'm also going to get a new spring for the tensioner first because it's cheap and it just might solve the clatter.

Don't know when I'll get to it, but I'll let you know if I learn anything.