I put the 2002 500 HO head on my 1996 500 lastnight and noted that the cam chain is very tight. there is no slop whatsoever. Is this normal or should i be concerned?? The cam sprockets are same part numbers between the two so its not a different size sprocket?? Im going to fire it up tonight but wanted to post the question before I did.

thanks for all your responses during this project....really helped out a bunch!

 

make sure your auto adjuster is good

 

If there's an automatic cam chain tensioner, then there shouldn't be any slop.

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: MECHANIKE

make sure your auto adjuster is good</end quote></div>

let me ask this.....if the adjuster was completely out of th equation, how tight would the cam chain be?? Would it be really tight, or would it have a little play? I dont believe mine would have any play at all even if the tensioner was removed??

 

anyone know if this is too tight....I want to fire it up tonight to see if it runs with the new cam/head?? But dont want to run it if the cam chain being really tight will cause problems??

thanks

 

i would take the adjuster off check the slack, check the adjuster for proper operation...

 

if you pull out whole adjuster you will instantly get slack,should be able to move the guide back and forth.

 

if i pulled the entire adjuster out, it wouldnt have any slack. Im starting to wonder if the cam sprocket is different between the 500 and 500 HO?? maybe the 500HO is bigger than the 500 that was on there?? Im gonna check that tonight.

 

ok im not the brightest....and wanted to post a follow up for anyone else with an IQ the same as mine.

if you pull the cam procket out for any reason the auto adjuster will auto adjust to its fullest. To un adjust and create some slack I had to pull the auto adjuster completely out, release it to its original position, insert it back into the block with cam and cam chain already installed, and then install the spring for the auto adjuster....and what do you know...its no longer super tight...woo hoo!!

thanks for all the help!!