Well, this sucks

[Braeden P]

2 months after a top end rebuild my 1983 Honda ATC200E it made a metal snapping noise and died, pushed it back home, took out the engine and took it apart. It was caused by me not putting thread lock on the cam gear bolts, they worked their way out with one snapping that got caught and snapped the cam chain. Since it’s an interference engine the exhaust valve and piston hit. This won’t be fun to fix. Had to take apart the crack case to get the bolt head and chain out.

 

[C-Bag]

Man I hate when that happens……

 

[FOMOGO]

All part of the acquisition knowledge, or also known as the Devil is in the details. Cheers, Mike

 

[markba633csi]

Ouch- Xpensive lesson

 

[C-Bag]

All part of the acquisition knowledge, or also known as the Devil is in the details. Cheers, Mike

And engines are chock full of devilish details. Some are in the manual and some are learned the hard way. Like my mentor used to say “well you won’t make that mistake again” and he was right.

 

[Braeden P]

And engines are chock full of devilish details. Some are in the manual and some are learned the hard way. Like my mentor used to say “well you won’t make that mistake again” and he was right.

There is no manual for rebuilding it but I found a table some guy made for the torque specs and it wasn’t enough.

Ouch- Xpensive lesson

it’s only about $70 for a set of NOS valves and a cam chain along with a new set of gaskets.

 

[mmcmdl]

Man I hate when that happens……

And it DOES happen . I have 3 Honda 400EXs here that need attention this winter . Not looking forward to it .

 

[C-Bag]

There is no manual for rebuilding it but I found a table some guy made for the torque specs and it wasn’t enough.

It must only be available to dealer shops as I can’t believe Honda doesn’t have a manual for rebuilding. I have bumped into many instances of complete manuals only available to dealers.

 

[Nesse1]

It's only a "mistake" if you do something wrong TWICE....

Do you have the factory Honda manual? http://www.oscarmayer.net/atc/manuals/

Edit: the Honda manual doesn't call for using loctite on the cam sprocket bolts. I'm not an expert on motorcycle engines, but in my years of building various Japanese motorcycle engines, I don't recall ever seeing loctite called out in that application. Maybe the old bolts were stretched and just worn out? How tight did you tighten them?

 

[markba633csi]

It's not so much the cost of the parts as much as the downtime and hassle factor- those have a cost too, just not dollars