Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

So my bike has started making some ticking noise, I figured it could be the cam chain tensioner.

Now I have seen various ways of adjusting it the easiest being loosening the two screws and letting out the cct mount a few mm's until it clicks.

My question is how far out should you have to go - obviously going too far is dangerous, most I have seen moved it about 2mm before click. I took mine out around 3mm and it still didn't click... I was too scared to go any further!

Any one have any advice for me? is further than 3mm ok, is there a better way to adjust it?

Thanks - pete

How many kms? What model?

Zx10rs are notoriously tappy. If its new and low kms I would e very doubtful if the tensioner being too loose

2010 Z1000 12,000kms the noise only recently started.

The noise started about 600kms after the 12k service, don't think its related? Same oil as before motul 5100...

Any other ideas? It's a lot louder when cold, can still hear it when warm but quieter...

I know they do a throttle body sync at 12k too, could this make a difference?

Throttle bodies wouldn't make noise.
I wouldn't be worried, but if you are, take it to a stealer, I mean dealer and get them to listen to it. It's still under warranty.

No warranty left

Might have to take it in but they will want to wait until its cold and its my only mode of transport

Maybe I can convince them to give me a zx10 for a day

The reason I'm concerned is you can hear it over the brawlers!

Sounds kind of like when you have lifter/ tappet noise in a car....

Well one click on the cct and from going up the street I believe I heard silence yay will test in the hills tomorrow arvo

Had same noise start with the ZX6R, 03/10 manufacture brought new 08/11, changed from semi synthetic to full synthetic at 6k service, has just on 8500 kms on her now, noise started straight after oil change, local dealer says don't worry about it, very common with full synthetics evidently they tend to be a bit noisier in the top end and the cam chain adjuster has quite coarse steps so tend to get a bit noisy just before they click over to the next step as well, they reckoned you could do the slight back out the adjuster and force an early adjustment trick but not really worth the effort, hasn't had any effect on her performance she still pulls clean through to redline and beyond

My concern would be if you over do it with the tensioner, you put extra unneeded tension on the chain and cam bearings. I shagged a GN250 head by doing just that.

Who has had a look at the oem tensioners?

Just how far is one click? A couple of mm?

Surely one click couldn't do damage? If you went too far you would probably hear whirring sounds?

Just how far in would you have to go to cause damage?

New development... The noise is still there! Turned the bike on for the first time in a couple of weeks and tick tick tick damn! Back to the dealer when the collarbone heals itself