Club 80-90 Forums

The ones that came out. Can you spot anything odd here?

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ajsimmo wrote: Yesterday's job. New followers, tubes and a speedshop exhaust. Sounds a lot nicer now!


I put a little smear of this on the followers before they go in. I reckon it should help break them in on the old but excellent camshaft.

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Nice! New followers all OK and quiet?

(Images aren't showing up as a preview by the way - had to copy/paste link into google).

ajsimmo wrote: The ones that came out. Can you spot anything odd here?

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Well one of them stands out like a sore thumb.......why is it different to the rest (obviously someone has just replaced one - is it aftermarket?)

pic links, ditch the [IMG]
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Yes all lovely and quiet. BW OEM KS ones, all stripped, emptied of thin assembly oil, primed with engine oil, checked for bent oiling discs, damage etc (as previously experienced), assembly lubed, then fitted and adjusted to 1.5 turns. Had one with a slight tick until warm. 20 mins and 3000rpm later all was lovely.

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Oh dear - Tapatalk update trouble. Usually uploads pics ok straight from camera!
Yes one odd follower, and it had a solid tube, so been like that since engine was built (and I know who by... Suffice to say they should, and do, know better. Customer was apparently charged for new followers!)

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Pics problem was image size too big, resized them but not showing for me on PC version. Can anyone else see them? Working fine on phone/Tapatalk.

Anyway, in danger of thread hijack. My point was...check and pre-fill​ your (hopefully good quality) followers, and use assembly lube. And the scat tubes are now standard fitment here - I like them a lot.

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ajsimmo wrote:Pics problem was image size too big, resized them but not showing for me on PC version. Can anyone else see them? Working fine on phone/Tapatalk.

Anyway, in danger of thread hijack. My point was...check and pre-fill​ your (hopefully good quality) followers, and use assembly lube. And the scat tubes are now standard fitment here - I like them a lot.

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Yep - I've got the KS followers from Brickwerks.

With regards to the re-filling/priming.....do you think this may be why people are experiencing noisy tappets? Like the oil pump/gasket issue relating to low oil pressure, if you just fit and forget, out of the box, without care and attention it can potentially cause issues?

In past reading up on the subject I've noticed the priming procedure for the followers in the Bentley manual so I've got that on the "must do" list already......

KS are a bit different if I remember, not the same as in bentley, principle is same I think but never done one

sherlylock wrote:With regards to the re-filling/priming.....do you think this may be why people are experiencing noisy tappets? Like the oil pump/gasket issue relating to low oil pressure, if you just fit and forget, out of the box, without care and attention it can potentially cause issues?

Yes, that's my belief. The oil they are shipped with is very thin, like water. You may find that some feel solid straight out the packet. I advise that you don't be tempted to fit them like this, they'll leak down as soon as under valve spring pressure leaving them spongy and rattly for ages before they finally sort themselves out. Meanwhile it may cause premature wear straight from first startup.
There are no shortcuts here. KS are slightly different to the others you may have seen. It's clip out, top cup, oil disc (note which way up), plunger (I use a thin pointed pick with a slight hook on it in the ball valve to gently pull it out). I then tip up to drain the oil with my finger partially over to stop the spring falling out, then jiggle spring back into its seat. Three pumps on the oil can of 15w40 mineral, plunger back in, blunted probe to press check ball valve down and let air out, disc back in, top cup, and then into vice (soft jaws in, please!), oil hole uppermost, with a sawn off pushrod end or similar to compress the plunger enough to get the clip back in.
A squirt of oil over the oil hole whilst releasing the vice (stop any air re-entering), and stand upright. Repeat 7 more times. You'll get quite quick by number 3 or 4.

Heating up cam drive and dizzy drive gears using the convection function of the works microwave oven to heat the gears up to 80degC



Cam drive gear tapped on using the homemade tool, ensuring the crank bearing next to it is fitted and in the correct orientation. Still need to fit the circlip....need to buy some proper circlip pliers to do this.



Spacer and dizzy drive also fitted (brass dizzy drive just drops into place and is then solid once cooled down). Test fitted in the case half with the camshaft to check the fit of the camshaft gear to crankshaft gear.

Rotating the crank backwards I get no lifting of the camshaft (DTI running on cam bearing). Doesn't feel like it's binding either.....so is this acceptable? What else can I measure here to make sure?

treat yourself


measure backlash with feelers, 0.05mm max so if a 0.05mm feeler fits it really too loose but your call.
rotate and measure in a number of places to check it does not vary too much, worn gears may be tight in some spots and loose in others.

So checking that the cam doesn't lift out of the shells checks the upper limit, feeler gauges checks the lower limit and "feel" determines whether there are any tight spots on rotation?

Will double check tonight/tomorrow

Got the feelers out......



0.076mm clearance.......damn it.

I can rock the camshaft backwards and forwards and feel/hear the clearance....



I've got 2 other cams to check - the original one that came out of the engine and a spare out of a DG engine that I split up for spares.

I'll try them tomorrow to see what clearances they give.

bugger...

so whats the overall situation then? if there is too much play/backlash and the other cams don't yield good results what do you do??