I was getting that rocks in a tin can noise on my 1982 kz550 ltd and I replaced the stock cam chain tensioner with the manual ape one. When k was cranking the engine by hand and tightening the bolt up on the tensioner I went allllll the way in on the tensioner because it just seemed the cam chain is really loose or something but I still have that noise and the chain seemed fairly tight but maybe could have been tighter. When I backed the bolt out it definitely didn't sound right. The noise sounds about the same now though maybe a bit better but the bold on the cct is all the way in!! Wtf is going on??
Were you making adjustments with the valve cover fully installed? It needs to be because it is part of the chain guide system.
If you haven't already, see the warning in my signature.
I've never really seen too many camchain issues or tensioner issues on the Kz550's except in cases where people installed the valve cover after installing and tensioning the camchain.
The stock tensioner seems to work fine for street use.
The crunching noise can be from the primary chain but that can be normal if it's the result of rough-idle. It is usually due to a bad synchronization of the carbs. On a good running bike the noise usually goes away after the bike is warmed up or at higher RPMs.
As loudhvx stated the noise could be caused by bad synchronization of the carbs. It also can be caused by the idle speed being set too low - as in less than 1100 rpm. Ed
