28-08-13, 03:22 PM
Well, I'm not the expert either, but I think if you actually do have an issue with your timing chain, you would first hear rattling, then more engine vibration than normal. Once it slips a tooth that can result in the valves dropping and hitting the pistons. If that happens you would lose a lot of power and shortly afterwards the engine will die and never start again. You may also get backfires. It happened to my car (which had a belt snap). Chains don't snap generally (less often than belts anyway) but if the tensioner fails then the chain can easily jump and wreck your top end.
Seems worrying that the mechanics in country didn't want to get involved, so maybe it really is the timing chain.
There is a thread on here not very long ago where someone had a cam chain tensioner fail twice. He'd be in a good place to tell you the exact symptoms on a Fazer.
With my bike (2004, 32,000 miles), I had a problem where I rode down to the Nürburgring and back with no problem, parked the bike up for a couple of weeks, and when I came to start it, the engine wouldn't fire and was turning over so fast I thought it was that the starter clutch had failed (see recent thread). Bump starting wouldn't work either. Turned out it was turning the engine over (I could feel gases at the exhaust) but it had lost compression due to the oil draining out of the bores and the rings getting stuck in a 'loose' position. Thank goodness this turned out to be the case, and was fixable.
The only reason I mention this is because the cause (long ride on old-ish engine followed by a lay-up) and the symptoms (lack of compression, not starting) could be confused with a timing chain issue at first glance.
Seems worrying that the mechanics in country didn't want to get involved, so maybe it really is the timing chain.
There is a thread on here not very long ago where someone had a cam chain tensioner fail twice. He'd be in a good place to tell you the exact symptoms on a Fazer.
With my bike (2004, 32,000 miles), I had a problem where I rode down to the Nürburgring and back with no problem, parked the bike up for a couple of weeks, and when I came to start it, the engine wouldn't fire and was turning over so fast I thought it was that the starter clutch had failed (see recent thread). Bump starting wouldn't work either. Turned out it was turning the engine over (I could feel gases at the exhaust) but it had lost compression due to the oil draining out of the bores and the rings getting stuck in a 'loose' position. Thank goodness this turned out to be the case, and was fixable.
The only reason I mention this is because the cause (long ride on old-ish engine followed by a lay-up) and the symptoms (lack of compression, not starting) could be confused with a timing chain issue at first glance.
__
There's no replacement for displacement
There's no replacement for displacement