Timing Chain Adjustment

Hey guys,

Hadn’t ridden my WR250X for a while following a long road trip to the Bay Area and back in June. I did a bunch of maintenance things to it this past week and took it out for a spin this afternoon (streets and some freeway). I knew the chain was rattling a bit following that trip and it was the same amount this ride, so decided to adjust it right on my return.

I basically rightened the adjuster until I heard the “slap” noise taken out and until it was “sewing machine” like. After that, wheeled it back into the garage and noticed kind of a “clicking roll” noise, but only in one spot while wheeling it. I figured the drive chain, but then it was quiet wheeling it out of the garage for the ride, so found it odd.

I then thought it must be too tight, so fired up and adjusted it out until I heard noticeable slapping again, and adjusted in until only a very slight amount of slap was heard. Tightened it down and then gave it some throttle and it stalled out, and the cooling fan came on.

Thinking the ride heated up the engine, and the standstill for a while answered the fan question. None the less, the rolling click in that one spot was still there and from my ear really couldn’t discern if it was drive chain or timing chain.

ANYWAY - the question is: how tight is too tight?

Also, with 37k mi on it, is it time for a new chain? I’ve adjusted a decent number of times since the manual adjuster installation at guessing 20k mi.


Thanks!!

Have only adjusted mine once since I got it (at 18k miles). Now has 35k and still quiet.
I don't see how the noise you got while pushing it around could have come from the engine (unless you had it in gear). Mine doesn't push very easily in that condition.

I figured it out. It was the drive chain making that noise. For the cam tension, i just fiddled back and forth with a couple test rides around the block and found a sweet spot in between. Really didn’t need the amount of adjustment I’d initially put in from the looks of it.