Cam Backlash Adjustment on the C500

[BRADEY]

Hi Guys I came across this series of 3 videos on how to adjust cam backlash. Thought I would share with all of you on this forum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noANYelOdGY&feature=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF2hCvyMQ7Y&feature=share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBFe4qa4Bp4&feature=share

[jartist]

Thanks for the heads-up! I may do mine soon.

[Kevin Mahoney]

WARNING
THE VIDEOS ARE WRONG!! DO NOT USE THEM UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES
The videos are fine right up until he shows you how to judge the backlash. His method can and will damage your engine. To an Indian mechanic and customer the most important thing is NO noise at all.  This is not possible with a mechanical thing, period. You can engineer in quiet but not noiseless. The downside of this fanaticism is wear.

Lets get to the point - Everything he says is right until he sets the backlash. What you want is to not feel any backlash when you turn the gear back and forth with your fingers, yet the gears should slip together easily and freely. It is a very fine adjustment and when you try it you will see exactly what I mean. No training, no special experience needed. Even the slightest too tight and they will not slip together easily. You might be able to get them to mesh but not easily. Any too loose and you will feel backlash. You must also check after you have tightened the lock nut. I also do NOT subscribe to his theory about making the adjustment where the pressure is the most. You should rotate the gear and check in at least three places to make sure that if there are any manufacturing variances they are taken care of. They need to be adjusted so that at the tightest place they slip together easily. Any other method will guarantee undue engine wear.

As a point of interest the way the gears are cut is quite expensive and help limit noise a great deal. It is also why the oil pump gear is plastic. 

[jartist]

Thanks for pointing out the discrepancies.  I cringed a bit too when he went a bit further than hand tight with the spanner. Better too loose with a little noise than too tight and binding. I'd turn the engine until the tightest spot is found and then tighten the eccentric adjuster by hand until the play in gears just goes away and them tighten the nut and check the play afterward at a few different spots.

[Ducati Scotty]

+1

[Kevin Mahoney]

If you follow my advice about tightening them until there is no play and then make sure the gear slips in and out easily you can adjust the perfectly. Not too tight and not too loose. Once you try it you will see exactly what I mean. It really is pretty cool. I have been turning wrenches 45 years and I have never seen a trick as cool as this. It is also what the factory teaches and fits with the way they cut the gears and designed the engine. They are also very very sensitive to engine noise (much more so than the average American). There is a 50 plus year tradition among Indian mechanics to overtighten cams by using eccentric cam spindles on iron barrels and AVL engines as well. They are known as wizards if they quiet down an engine this way. I am not being critical but it is just plain not right.

[Ducati Scotty]

That trick only lasts a little while, then it accelerates the wear and gets even louder.

Scott

[iron.head]

The major issue with my C5 got resolved yesterday. My bike was producing a whistling noise from a few months now and was bothering me since then. Initially I thought it was the auto chain tensioner which was the cause of this sound and I got it replaced. Yet this sound did not go away. Yesterday my bike was inspected by a mechanic from RE who inspects bikes which cannot be fixed by workshop mechanics. He got the RHS engine cover opened and one of the mechanics exclaimed that my bike had one of the two differently designed set of cams. This mechanic from RE said that this set of cams is there in some bikes and is prone to development of play and hence the development of noise.

Then, he got both the cams replaced with new ones which he said were of a different design and the sound was completely gone! Hope that it stays this way for a long long time.

Another guy told me that going by the books, the cams have to be adjusted for play after completion of first 500 kms but the workshops don't do it and the mechanics don't know how to do it.