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gs550d tachometer drive on the camshaft stripped

S

Stigy

Forum Newbie
During the engine rebuild one of many problems I've found is stripped tachometer drive. Looks nasty. I don't think it's safe to drive the tachometer with this gear... What do You think ? Is buying another camshaft my only option here ?
 

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Cipher said:
Did it have a aftermarket gasket?
Id use oem and run it providing the gear in the tach drive is OK.
Click to expand...

The gear in the tach drive is perfectly fine.
What do You mean by oem gasket - which gasket ?
You suggest the gasket might be to thin/thick and the contact between gears was off ?
 
Stigy said:
The gear in the tach drive is perfectly fine.
What do You mean by oem gasket - which gasket ?
You suggest the gasket might be to thin/thick and the contact between gears was off ?
Click to expand...

Yeah there is or was a company that made silicone gaskets to be reusable replacements to oem paper.
being thicker they cause the gears to not mesh properly.

not sure it caused your issue. There maybe some pics of the damaged they caused accessible using the search function.
 
Can't tell for sure, but it looks like it took a lick at that 1 spot, like it was dropped on something or something fell and hit that 1 spot. Wear should be roughly the same all the way around. Could you get a screwdriver down in there and kind'f pry those 2 bent over spots straightened back up a little. About using it, worst it could do is ruin the little tach drive gear. They are no longer available from Suzuki, but plenty on ebay if needed.
 
Nothing there will bend straight - it's cast iron which will simply break. Looks to me like someone put the cam in and got the tacho drive crossed up. Usually they self-align but sometimes not. I'd use the cam as is. IMO there's enough worm drive left to drive the tacho OK.

A repair is actually possible. Build up the missing pieces with bronze weld then carefully file everything back to original shape. But IMO, not necessary.
 
"It's cast iron which will simply break" maybe, but in the picture it sure looks more bent than broke. Just thinking, a used cam for that eng. should be pretty cheap.
 
Stigy said:
You suggest the gasket might be to thin/thick and the contact between gears was off ?
Click to expand...

The worm gear seats in fixed points and is not affected by head gasket or valve cover gasket.
It has a oring and oil seal, but those cannot affect gear contact ....
 
I think the issue of whether the valve cover gasket's thickness/squishness variation from OEM could cause a mismesh of the tach drive spindle/worm gear and the damage shown in the photo could be answered if we knew whether the tach drive is in the cylinder head cover (where the gasket could be a factor) or if the tach drive is in the cylinder head (where the valve cover gasket could have no effect). I find no record of, or parts fiches for, a GS 550 model D in NA, so that was maybe a EU/other continent-only model? I don't know.

Reading through this thread, this is where my comprehension has led me. (I've not always scored high in reading comprehension tests. ;)) Quite possibly I'm misunderstanding the issue entirely.

To the OP Stigy, can you answer this question? Does the tach drive enter the engine in the Valve Cover, or in the Head?
 
I'd not thought about that, Just thought an "83" as D is the designation for 83 GS models. But you are correct, other parts of the world may have had a tach drive that wasn't in the cover... Just didn't think of that.
 
rphillips said:
I'd not thought about that, Just thought an "83" as D is the designation for 83 GS models. But you are correct, other parts of the world may have had a tach drive that wasn't in the cover... Just didn't think of that.
Click to expand...

hahaha me too ... didn't think about the cover mount .... Rich nailed it mentioning both options.
 
Cast will bend once, but break if you try to bring it back. If you have a lathe, and make a proper tool, you might be able to bring it back, turning it by hand and having the tool push from that direction might coax it back into shape. You would have to have to bits, one in a good thread, and one in the other, parallel, to make it work. It doesn't take much to push a tach, it may work the way it is, for a while, anyways.

It looks dropped though, you would see marks on the mating gear if that had caused it. I don't know what year your bike is, but there are pairs of these camshafts on EBAY for $40 bucks (U.S.)
 
Rich82GS750TZ said:
To the OP Stigy, can you answer this question? Does the tach drive enter the engine in the Valve Cover, or in the Head?
Click to expand...

It's1978 GS550D - European version - pretty rare.
The tach drive enter the engine in the Valve Cover, not in the Head. The tach drive gear is in perfect condition. The gear on the camshaft looks broken, not bend. Have a really tough time deciding what to do with this thing. The rest of the camshaft is perfectly usable.

Back to the chain sprockets - there are two types - those with plastic parts on the circumference and those without them. Are they cross compatible ? Were sprockets and camshafts the same ?
 
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Hi, another option is to put it back together without the tack cable and use a electric tack. I made a plug by cutting the old cable and filling it with silicone.
 
Suzukian said:
There's a camshaft on EBAY, and it has the worm gear drive. They are asking something like $21.95 + $14 dollars for it. Link below. It looks like it's in great condition. ;)

Click to expand...

Sadly I'm from Europe and the shipping is $69 :(
I see there is no point of risking it and putting this camshaft back to the freshly rebuild engine (bottom end included).
Will be looking for a nice camshaft here in europe.

What about the chain sprockets - there are two types - those with plastic parts on the circumference and those without them. Are they cross compatible ? Were sprockets and camshafts the same ?

Another thing is, there are two part numbers for exhaust camshafts (intake are the same for most models). There is 1272147010 as far as I see this one is used in year 80 onward. The second one is 1272147000 - 79 backwards. Does anybody know if they are cross compatibille ?
 
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I missed the part that you were in Europe. At that price, if you were in the U.S., and looked at all the pics, that camshaft looks almost new. It wouldn't be much of an investment. The plastic bit was to quiet the camshaft. Useless, and it isn't done anymore.

Still, you're talking $70 bucks for possible everything you need. The tach drives exerts very little force. If you took a thread file, and filed the part of the thread crossed over, I bet it would work. I am a machinist by the way, and usually the gear that goes into the worm gear goes all the way to the bottom.
There would be enough thread left to drive the tach IMHO. Good luck! :)
 
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