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mccartge

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
Does anyone know if the new cam chain tensioner PN:11317108586 will also work in an R1200? For all of my searching I can only find references to this part being used on the R1250.

Like many of us, I too have the ticking sound in the port side cylinder of the bike and believe that the slightly longer cam chain (~6 links) on the left side is responsible. I am looking at aftermarket tensioners to resolve this issue for ~$250 a pair but wonder if BMW's revised left side tensioner at ~$150 would do the trick on a 2018 R1200.
 
Cam Chain Tensioners for the 1250 use the 17x3mm O-ring for oil sealing and the 1200 uses the 24x20x1.5mm Copper crush washer for oil sealing.
They are completely different. The 1250 uses a 2 part cartridge floating piston, and the 1200 uses an open piston with a standard 68mm long spring for pretension.
The updated 1250 Cam Chain Tensioner has a 5.10mm internal step in it to position the 2 part piston closer to the chain.


The LH cam chain comes directly off the crankshaft and runs straight out to the cam sprocket and has 106 links and the RH chain comes from lower in the engine, driven from the counterbalance shaft...and has 102 links. I think the difference is due to the different arc of the slack side rails.

The majority of the cam chain rails that I see have significant wear along the path of the side plates of the chain rubbing on the plastic rails. This has to be taken up by the oil driven CCT and at some point there is not enough effort applied to the slack side rail due to hot oil and low oil pressure at idle...hence the noisy cam chain complaint. (See my collection of Cam Chain Rails below)

Just replacing the CCT will not take care of miles and miles of wear on the chain rails where the side plates of the chain have worn grooves into the plastic.
Another reason the 1250 will not suffer this kind of plastic wear on the chain rails is that it has a link chain vs a roller chain and the entire bottom of each set of links is riding on the plastic thus reducing the pressure points of the roller chain.

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I installed the 1250 version of SoCal MotorWerks mechanical cam chain tensioners on my 1250GSA. They work great and you can really fine tune each side depending on milage and wear. 'Spensive fo'sho'....but worth it in my opinion.


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I would NOT recommend using a mechanical Cam Chain Tensioner to take up the wear on the plastic cam chain rails.
This will accelerate the existing wear pattern and ultimately cause a catastrophic failure of the chain rails.

Your bike, your money...do as you see fit.

Sorry, it's just my opinion based on seeing lots of cam chain tensioners and rails...first hand.
 
I have about 60k miles on my 2018 GS and don't have any noise. I did have some on the right side that turned out to be a worn cam lobe.
How many miles are on your bike and how do you know it's the tensioner? Perhaps it's the oil your using or the tensioner just needs to be replaced with a new (stock BMW) one.
 
Discussion starter · #6 · (Edited)
Thanks gents for the excellent information. Seems some bikes have this issue but not all. Bought the bike new in 2018 and have 24k miles on it. Reviewed a lot of posts and videos to narrow the problem down. Seems the aftermarket community is addressing it because BMW hasn't.

I've already ordered the CCTs from SoCal MotoWerks but I'll hold off on the install until I do some more research.

Do you have a recommendation BoxFlyer? Should I just live with it?
 
I would just live with it...
The more you strain the components beyond BMW engineered parameters, the more likely that it will accelerate some other problem.
If the bike runs OK, but is just somewhat noisy, I'd ride it or if you think it's getting worse rapidly, trade it in to the dealer...they are the ones that say..."they all sound that way"
 
Discussion starter · #8 · (Edited)
Thanks!

Been hearing this ticking since I purchased it new in 2018. Local shop claimed the noise was normal when I asked them to check it out during intial scheduled service.

Just to rule out valve clearances and cam wear. I did check the valve clearances and cam lobes back in Oct 2022 and all looked good. All measurements within specifications (intake 0.10-0.17, exhaust 0.34-0.41)


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Those values you show that you are using Imperial (SAE) feeler gauges with equivalent metric values. It's a little better to use metric feeler gauges so you can keep your increments consistant.
The gasket for the spark plug tunnel is also installed upside down. The internal notch in the gasket needs to like up with the notch in the cam bearing cap.

One more thing to experiment with is to run some high quality gas treatment thru your bike. Something with high concentrations of PEA cleaning. Chevron Techron and BG K44 are both good for cleaning carbon from the combustion chamber...and especially the valve faces. That carbon can hold off the valve from seating normally on the valve seat in the head and the result is excessive clearance on the end of the valve at the follower. This make all kinds of racket in the valve train and can only be corrected by running a couple of tanks of carbon cleaner thru the bike...don't over do the recommended ratio of cleaner, it can throw off any Oil Analysis Program you may be running.

Hope I didn't offend with my observations of your pictures...those things just kinda jumped off the page at me.
 
I made some brass buckets with a 4 mm lift which sits inside the camchain tensioner bucket then the spring sits inside the brass bucket. No more clack and rattle on start up and at idle
What year your bike is? Mine is 2021 and I updated the tensioner but still have some ticking noise from the left cilynder.
 
I have about 60k miles on my 2018 GS and don't have any noise. I did have some on the right side that turned out to be a worn cam lobe.
How many miles are on your bike and how do you know it's the tensioner? Perhaps it's the oil your using or the tensioner just needs to be replaced with a new (stock BMW) one.
What oil are you using?
 
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