Timing chain, how much slack?

[victormeldrew]

Having removed the timing cover on my 500 I notice that there is quite a lot of slack in the chain, especially considering its short length. Never having seen one before I am not sure how much play there should be. I'd say it has 1/2" of slack at the midpoint.

[pete500]

Same on mine, 20kmiles only. Suppose the very hard original valvesprings can be credited. Make sure you get a high quality replacement chain.... pt

[victormeldrew]

Mines 27k. I'll take that as one vote for "its knackered" then Pete!

[victormeldrew]

Andy

Yes, finally got some time to have a look at it.

The teeth look OK, but you can pick the chain off the sprocket about 1/4", so its pretty shot I think.

I posted on the other thread about the damage I just found, but I'll summarise here:
- no3 piston skirt has collapsed
- there was a washer in the sump
- part of the skirt was in the sump, another lodged in the oil pickup filter
- the main bearing shell has worn through completely to the backing

Looks like reground crank and a set of new pistons to add to the growing list.