Starter Chain Guide Replacement?

[minnesota750]

Hi Everyone, i have a 73 and have made the update to the starter clutch with the help of Argo's update - it works great btw.

I pulled off the tensioner for the chain like the service bulletin said, but have too much slack in the chain/too much lash. The chain jumped off the sprockets - not sure which one, i got fed up and pushed it into the garage where its been sitting for the last month and I started on a 79 XS750 cafe racer project I had on hold.

Im going to go back to the TX pretty soon and drop the side cover and investigate, but think Im going to need to come up with a homegrown solution for the starter chain tensioner. Im not sure what the best material is to use for a replacement part, but will need something.

I intend on fabricating a new tensioner that will have a fixed position to take out the slack in the chain. The old tensioner was a piece of thin steel that had some spring to it attached to the mounting bracket with three posts - one of wichnhad broken off bc I didnt remove it at first when I did the update.

I may try and use the old base bracket and add something similar to the cam chain tensioner, but wont be adjustable, as once the cases are closed up there wont be any way to adjust it.

If anyone had a fix/solution/suggestion I would appreciate any insight.

TxRp.

[minnesota750]

 Bulletin for reference. 

[retromech]

Hi, Have renewed starter chain and sprockets on my 72 TX with later level parts with no problems , have used new genuine parts throughout , I may be wrong but it sounds like you have a chain that is too long or one of the sprockets has the wrong amount of teeth , do the earlier level parts have a different number of teeth ?, hope this is of some help.(forgot to say , mine has no chain tensioner)
Kind Regards Paul.

P.S. your thoughts are generally correct on synthetic oil , on older engines it can cause "bedding in" issues and high consumption also clutch issues , often causing clutch slip or drag.

[albaljeu]

I made up a piece of UHMW plastic....fits in the hole behind it.

[mike]

Running into this same problem my 73 with 74 cases the starter chain is 52 link and is hitting the case found a new 52 link oem and it still hits the case at the bottom. the service bulletin says old style 73 chains were 62 link before updated my starter gear is 11 teeth and the large gear behind the starter clutch is 38 teeth anyone have any input on this? Would probably run ok like this but sure do-sent seem right!

[sammiuk]

Hi Mike have same problem with new chain hitting casing , it's bloody anoying no other bike is like this