CAM BEARING CAP BOLT TORQUES

[jacobmarley]

I have tightened the cam bearing cap bolts to 8 ft lbs as someone suggested and used some loctite, but they now rattle like mad. The Clymer manual says 12 ft lbs, but this seems high for a 6 mm bolt, I looked on the KZ1000 owners club in the States and they specify 12 ft lbs.
Anyone got a definintive answer as it looks like I have got to tighten them down a bit, but I don't want to cause any damage. -Jacobmarley

[Pigford]

If u tightened them to 8 lbs/ft, AND uswed loctite, they should NOT have come undone

[PJones]

are you sure the rattle is coming from the cams, was it there before the stripdown, have you adj the cam chain properly?

If the cam caps are down, it should not rattle??

[Garn 1]

Agree with above they shouldn't rattle. Do you mean that the individual bolts are physically loose or they are pulled-down to your specs and the shaft can rattle (move up and down). If the latter is true, I suggest your slipper bearing has inadvertently fallen out prior to assembly.

Just as an aside, I believe small torque measurements on these small 6mm bolts are never accurate even when using a small torque wrench, Your hand is much more reliable. One thing I have learnt is that when you think it is stripped it is!
RegardZ

[chrisNI]

I have tightened the cam bearing cap bolts to 8 ft lbs as someone suggested and used some loctite, but they now rattle like mad.

Are you saying they have loosened? Steve Debben recommends 6ft/lbs 8 is definitely plenty. 12 will strip most of them. If there's a rattle it's not loose bolts if they're still sitting at 8.

[Al]

From October 2007 post reply The correct figure is calculated to be; 104 inch pounds which is equivalent to 8.666 rec. ft-lbs.for 6mm bolts in this environment. 12 foot pounds will absolutely snap bolts or strip threads as well as overloading the caps. Need to use a low range torque wrench for this and preferably one with an external indicator. Looks like degrees but in inch pounds or foot pounds.
Al.

[Al]

Just had another thought after writing the patronising reply above. I stripped three of my cam bolt threads and then discovered that the spare 1100 head in the shed has longer bolts. So i used these instead. They reach down to a greater depth and put the bolts in touch with thread deeper in the head which is better supported all round. You might want to try the bolts in the holes first without the caps and measure the length of plain bolt under the head at the point where they bottom out and make sure that this is not longer than the depth of the caps below the spot face!!!!!just a thought.

AL

[Obr]

I think I've got the best results by feel the torque in my fingers A solution if you strip the threads is Heli-Coil. I've used it several times when mounting in aluminium.
By my experience from offshore market there's always in specs to use Heli-Coil in aluminium

[RALPHARAMA]

Just as an aside, I believe small torque measurements on these small 6mm bolts are never accurate even when using a small torque wrench, Your hand is much more reliable

I served my time in aircraft (british Aerospace) and whilst when I do have pretty good feel for torque, it is far safer to use a good torque wrench. The extra cost of a proper torque wrench eg Snap-On Britool et al can be set off against damage that wont be caused to your bike. If you use good tools there is no reason why you shouold ever strip a thread and when rebuilding an engine, using Mr Kwakazaki's manuel, if all the 6mm bolts in aluminium are set at 6-8 ft/lb and then it asks for 12 ft/lb alarm bells should ring. I've found over the years that many frequently removed covers eg final drive casing, often have helicoiled threads, because owners consider that they can feel the right torque!

[Rich]

If you do mean that the camcaps are rattling ie moving then the bolts you are using may be too long for the application, the bottom of the threaded hole may be filled up with crap and the bolt is bottoming out before tightening the caps down or you may have already stripped the thread.

[jacobmarley]

Thanks to all those who gave the advice, I checked them all out. Did the job again used 8 ft lbs on cam caps, found that one of the clearances now measured .008, moved a couple of shims to get within tolerance, put it all back together again and its fine now.
Thinking on the noise I was getting it may have been that I had trouble getting the valve shim tool located on a couple of valves and I cleaned the oil from the shim reservoir of these valves, would it have made it very noisey at the start as I only ran it for a second or two as I did'nt like the sound of it.
What other club could I get info like this from ? - Thanks Jacobmarley

[Rich]

Do you mean that you are tightening the cam caps to adjust the valve clearance ?

[Pigford]

Jacobmarley, it could be that lack of oil film under the shim (after you cleaned it) may have made it 'rattley' or, more likely, the incorrect clearances was what u heard
If all sounds well now, sorted & no need to worry now

[jacobmarley]

:?: Do you mean that you are tightening the cam caps to adjust the valve clearance ?

No hardcore I just wrote it like that. The original problem was that I used the torques in the manual only to find out they were incorrect, when I set the right torque the valves were on the top limit on a couple of cylinders, this coupled with the dry shims probably gave me the shakes. So I went through the whole process again and it now sounds o.k. - Thanks for your help.