kz1100 cam shaft loose!!!!

My engine has been a bit rattly and started loosing power so figured the valve clearances needed looked at. Took the cam cover off to discover one end of the cam shaft not secured :silly: I've never touched it but the 4 bolts securing cam shaft at one end all stripped so the cam shaft been moving around!

so should i just re-tap the holes and check valve clearances? or should i suspect something more sinister and dig deeper into the engine?

Cheers
Fergie

cam cap bolt or bolts stripped out or loose would be my guess.

YOU NEED TIME-SERTS

www.belmetric.com

What torque are you using for the cam cap bolts? 66 INCH pounds or 8 FT pounds should be the max, otherwise, goodbye 6mm threads. Many Kawasaki manuals are incorrect for this torque in the Kz 1000/Kz 1100 engines.

Time to get timeserts and an inch/pound torque wrench. Ed

MFolks wrote: What torque are you using for the cam cap bolts? 66 INCH pounds or 8 FT pounds should be the max, otherwise, goodbye 6mm threads. Many Kawasaki manuals are incorrect for this torque in the Kz 1000/Kz 1100 engines.

+1!!!!!!!!! Timeserts work well (I have used them on my GPz1100 exhaust cam caps [which were all stripped by the previous owner]).

The proper way is to use inserts, but if there is enough material left, you can also re-thread to 1/4in and save the inserts. But if you do, you must be very careful not to mix up the bolts if you ever remove the cams later.

faffi wrote: The proper way is to use inserts, but if there is enough material left, you can also re-thread to 1/4in and save the inserts. But if you do, you must be very careful not to mix up the bolts if you ever remove the cams later.

I hope to never have to remove cams again!! See the thing is I'm Scottish and you guys talk about these inch things. I was thinking it should tap out a size. My life used to be easy for stuff like that when dad worked in the machine shop, he would custom make me individual bolts or inserts.

anyway will run a tap in and see how i get on, cheers.

1/4 in = 6.3 mm or so. Usually, especially if you use very fine threads, that will work just fine. The next size is 7 mm, which is quite rare when it comes to finding bolts. Plus you will need to reem the holes in the caps and maybe even the dowel pins. So I personally would try 1/4 in as they would likely work very well with minimal work and cost and do the inserts if that fails.

Can anyone tell me cam cap bolt size in mm? Cant find my vernier to measure them.

Once I know for sure will ask on local forum for thread repair kit.

Should be 6-mm bolt size.

Thread Pitch should be 1.0

you really need to purchase a manual for you bike. My manual has all these answers in it. They also have several different conversion charts for mm to inch, foot pounds to inch pounds and so on. If you want to play bike mechanic, GET ONE TODAY.

good luck

I do have the manual in PDF format, unfortunately I am dyslexic so find it easier to pick brains of fellow owners on forum. Saves me making brain hurt or asking wife for help. spell check on iPhone has been a revelation to me as well as dictation.


Cheers for all the replies.

Fergie

Hey guys,
Should Fergie be worried about excess wear in the other journals? He did say the cam was moving around....