When Cams Go Bad
 

I recently discovered, much to my dismay, that several Nortons managed to leave the factory with cams that were not hardened. For those of you that have never seen a worn cam I present the following.

http://www.mc2home.com/tfp/camone.jpg

http://www.mc2home.com/tfp/camtwo.jpg

http://www.mc2home.com/tfp/camthree.jpg

My crankcase is presently on its way to Washington state for a rebuild. :(

wow, thats pretty bad, i wish you goodluck!

and give those guys in washington hell!

Ouch, sorry to hear that =(

Wow....that SUCKS

Ok, every time I think I know a little bit about cars, I see something like this that shows how ignorant I am.

Can you explain, for the less-knowledgeable amongst us (specifically: me) - what exactly is bad with the cams, in terms of the pictures?

Thanks!

pragma, look at the lobes, the fairly shiny slightly egg-shaped pieces of metal mounted on the rod. The top of the lobe should be flat across, and his are worn down so much that there is an edge on the edge of the camshaft

So how many miles of life is that?
I've never seen an edge like that on a cam. Makes sense that it would wear like that.....

Ouch, that is not a good sign. I'm also curious how many miles are on it?

Hehe too bad it's a british bike......

Should of got a triumph....;)

i have heard of worn cams or cams that were never hardened, but had never seen one. Pretty much what i expected, but still crazy nonetheless. And now i know. And knowing is half the battle. :)

Well thats sorta what my cam looks like......and its 350 chevy Cam!

This is wear from approximately 25,000 miles. The faces of the cam lobes are supposed to be surface hardened due to the constant sliding wear from the lifters.

And, uh, merkerguitars, it is a British bike. Many of the parts are interchangable with both Triumph and BSAs.

And just a little info for you younger guys and those of you just getting into doing your own wrenching.

There are no hydraulic lifters, I have to manually adjust the valves every 10,000 miles or so. I can actually tell how well things are running out on the highway from the noise made by the rocker arms contacting the valve stems.

No fuel injection, I have to tune the carbs every so often, I carry a small screwdriver just in case I need to touch up the carbs.

The cam drive chain has to be manually adjusted from time to time for the best performance.

The oil pump has to be taken apart on occasion and the sides honed flat to compensate for the wear of the pump gears.

It does have an aftermarket electronic ignition but that seems to have its own set of unusual problems and quirks.

This, like old Harleys, is a pre-unit machine. This means that the engine, primary drive, and transmission are three seperate units. The primary drive and final drive chains have to be adjusted together for smooth power transmission.

Oh, and it's kick start only.

Ya gotta love machinery to drive an old thing like this. Much of the technology in this 30 year old machine is from World War 2.

Next time some of you push the button on your modern, fuel injected, electronic ignition, bike from the space age and it starts right up and goes like a bat out of hell, give a thought to its ancestors.

Sorry the should of bought a triumph thing was a joke. Me and my dad actually collect and restore bsa's and triumphs....when know all the hassles with them.....good ol amal carbs and lucas wiring :)

i had a Crane cam a long time ago that did that.. thought a rod was knocking, but it was just a flat lobe

Lucas didn't invent darkness, but he surely perfected it. =)

I love my 30 year old Honda. Course, it ain't runnin' right now due to dead coils (and maybe a dead reg/rect too), so maybe I shouldn't joke about Brit electrics...