help needed after cam chain replacement

Hey all,

Just replaced my cam chain on a new to me 2006 sm610. Most of the credit goes to this forum! The problem is, now that it's all back together I'm hearing a lot of noise coming from the valve area. When I had the bike open I checked the valves and they seemed tight. I adjusted them to proper .002 on all four. Then Triple checked because I was meticulous about gaskets and sealants so I won't have an oil leak and didn't want to do it all again! I chalked up the noise to no oil in the system at first, so I ran it for a bit with no change.

After this I checked my oil level then pulled the oil feed line to make sure its working. ( it is ) I was worried because I can't see oil movement through the sight glass. On my dirt bike I can. But please let me know what you guys think. I'm a bit afraid to ride it. Can't get the video to load!!

I'd double check your timing marks all line up right and check your valves again. Iv just done my timing chain on my 00 sm610e. What tensioner is on yours? Did you torque everything to spec? Did you remove your waterpump impeller and refit it properly because even though I tightened mine it wasn't until I torqued it that it seated into place. Cam gear? Hope something helps. Time won't cost you anything, parts will.

I would also recommend re-checking your valves. How much did you need to loosen them up to get them to the spec? 0.002" is on the low side (I think I go for 0.003-0.004, regardless of what the book says), so if they were much tighter than that I would be surprised if the bike ran right.

Are you sure that the cam/crank was in the right place when you checked & set the valves? If it wasn't right and was preloading the rockers, you could have set them way too loose by accident.

Won't hurt to re-check the timing while you're in there, but being off on timing by a tooth or two won't make the valvetrain any noisier (it will, however, make the bike run like crap).

I just remembered something strange happened my inlet valves once and made a very worrying clicking noise shortly after they had been adjusted. After a few miles and a blast of full throttle it started and when I checked one of the inlet valves had a massive gap and the other was fine. Don't know what caused it but once it was set again it was fine ever since.

Thanks for the tips everyone. I will be taking a look to see what I can find in a couple days when I have some time. I appreciate the ideas of where I can start

What interests me is that you cannot see oil movement in the sight glass. I just checked mine and yes, I could see oil movement. Not a lot, but some.

When you put the right side case back on did you make sure the oil pump slot was aligned with the groove on the oil pump? The cover for the oil pump is directly below the oil filter. I suspect the case will not even go back into place unless it is aligned. But if you want to be really sure you remove that cover and put the bike in 6th gear and manually spin the rear wheel and the pump should spin. You can lay the bike on the side if you don't want to drain the oil.

Fixed it! I have no idea how but the inlet valves were loose. I do have one more question. What is the the oil movement in the sight glass supposed to look like?

For reference, how loose?

Glad it was a nice, easy fix.

Hmm, didn't go up far enough to find out. But .003 was so loose I could lift the arms off of it.not sure how or why