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Top idler tower movement

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Moderators: chrisu, paul doran, Taffus, KeithZ1R

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Pipes66
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Joined: 11th Sep 2017
Location: Rugby

Top idler tower movement

#1 PostAuthor: Pipes66 » Mon Jun 18, 2018 11:12 am

Hi,
While I was checking my valve clearances I noticed there is some movement with the idler tower. At first I thought the bolts were loose but they were still torqued tight. The rubber dampers are all new and in good condition.
I can move the tower sideways between the rubbers by hand and if I hold the top of the tower I can rock it slightly back and forth. Is this normal?
Clearly,having rubber dampers I would expect some movement but I thought it would be gripped a bit tighter so I couldn't slide between the rubbers.

chrisu
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Re: Top idler tower movement

#2 PostAuthor: chrisu » Mon Jun 18, 2018 12:22 pm

what bike ?

They did change apparently so maybe you've got the wrong one fitted ?

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zed1015
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Re: Top idler tower movement

#3 PostAuthor: zed1015 » Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:35 pm

Something sounds amiss.
Tower should be gripped firmly between the rubbers and not able to float around, especially if just pushed by hand.
Maybe it had been assembled incorrectly.
There should be metal plates on the top of the rubbers for the bolts to tighten down on and compress the damper rubbers.
Are these missing ?

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ADRIAN H
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Re: Top idler tower movement

#4 PostAuthor: ADRIAN H » Mon Jun 18, 2018 5:41 pm

Are the bolts over length ?
adrianhorsfield@live.co.uk
Sunny Bournemouth. Dorset. UK.

Pipes66
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Posts: 4
Joined: 11th Sep 2017
Location: Rugby

Re: Top idler tower movement

#5 PostAuthor: Pipes66 » Tue Jun 19, 2018 9:37 am

It's a z900, as far as I know the tower bolts are original. I notice by the time the bolts are holding the tower down they must be just about at the bottom of the hole.
As an experiment I re-fitted the original rubber plates and the movement has gone. They are old but they haven't hardened. I'm not sure how much use they've had as it's a race bike and in the parts box I've found a set of the little dampers for the lower tensioner wheels,so they could have been replaced and not had a lot of use. The bike was in a barn since 1982 until I started using it.
I had a chat with the chap at z power,he tells me the z1000 tower is slightly different to the z900, it's a bit longer,looking at where the tower fits I don't think I'd get the cam cover on if the tower Base was longer.
I think I'd better get a new tower as the gear has a bit of movement in it,any suggestions which tower to buy as there's oem @£200 from z power but I see ape liska do one for £130?

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ADRIAN H
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Re: Top idler tower movement

#6 PostAuthor: ADRIAN H » Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:02 am

Pipes66 wrote:It's a z900, as far as I know the tower bolts are original. I notice by the time the bolts are holding the tower down they must be just about at the bottom of the hole.
As an experiment I re-fitted the original rubber plates and the movement has gone. They are old but they haven't hardened. I'm not sure how much use they've had as it's a race bike and in the parts box I've found a set of the little dampers for the lower tensioner wheels,so they could have been replaced and not had a lot of use. The bike was in a barn since 1982 until I started using it.
I had a chat with the chap at z power,he tells me the z1000 tower is slightly different to the z900, it's a bit longer,looking at where the tower fits I don't think I'd get the cam cover on if the tower Base was longer.
I think I'd better get a new tower as the gear has a bit of movement in it,any suggestions which tower to buy as there's oem @£200 from z power but I see ape liska do one for £130?


Liska ones are better than OEM Kawaski - bought mine from Z1 Enterprises, USA - super quick delivery and did nt pay import duty, but this was before they moved to Florida.

https://www.z1enterprises.com/cam-chain ... liska.html
adrianhorsfield@live.co.uk
Sunny Bournemouth. Dorset. UK.


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