• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

GS 550 '79 - tachometer drive on camshaft damaged - possible repairs ?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stigy
  • Start date Start date
S

Stigy

Guest
Hello.
After examination of my exhaust camshaft I discovered that the tachometer drive doesn't look as it should. Simply speaking - it's ground.
So, i've gone to the guy who sells used Suzuki parts. He got like 8-10 camshafts and that's where it gets interesting - every one of them was ground like mine. He says that it's common - every used Suzuki GS 550 he got had a camshaft like that...

20180212_021901.jpg

So here are the questions:
1. Why are all this camshafts so ground ? Is it common ?
2. What is the best think i can do now ? is it repairable ? could this camshaft be regenerated ?

I'll be grateful for any help.
 
Sit it in place in the head and check how much gear engagement you have. If the centerline of the cam gear and that of the tacho drive align, run it.
What's left on the cam looks like nearly every tacho drive I've seen as far as width goes.
You don't need much gear engagement - it's only driving a cable and tacho.
 
Neither did I, but I haven't looked at it too closely when I had the cover off last time.
 
I'm not afraid of loosing tacho. I'm afraid that if another peace of metal breaks away, it could cause serious thread for the engine, oil ports, cylinder barrels, piston rings etc. It doesn't look good. When i scratched this gear a little bit a small peace of metal has fallen off. That's a big concern for me, as i can see it for now...
Here are photos with all deterioration marked.
20180212_021901_2.jpg
 
The tach driven gear is in the cover. When installing the cover it's important to make sure the tach gear meshes smoothly with the worm gear on the camshaft or there will be a clash. From the look of the photo someone hamfisted the cover install and sheared off a couple of teeth. I'm not sure if that amount of damage is significant or not.
 
Ah f!$k, now that makes me worry a little; I just did my very first valve adjustment yesterday. Shouldn't a misaligned tach drive pose significant resistance to getting the cover on? I mean, I kept in mind when installing, but I can't recall to have consciously aligning it – also, the cover did "slip" into place without leaving gaps or requiring me to press down on it.
 
So, does anybody know or can tell if that amount of damage is significant ? As far as I can tell the two sprocket don't have any free play, they match quite well and the bottom of the teeth are untouched. Still I'm really not sure what to do about that :)
 
Stigy said:
So, does anybody know or can tell if that amount of damage is significant ? As far as I can tell the two sprocket don't have any free play, they match quite well and the bottom of the teeth are untouched. Still I'm really not sure what to do about that :)
Click to expand...

Use it as is. The damage is insignificant and there is minimal load on the gears.
 
Agreed -- run it.

I've actually seen a couple of these with similar damage where someone jammed the valve cover or a camshaft on without removing the tach drive gear. I haven't seen them cause any further issues at all.

This gear has virtually no load on it, so it's not going to damage anything or get worse.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top