cam guide NOT AVAILABLE anywhere?

I would say I called about 12 different shops, including one in Milwaukee which had an ETA for the parts to be in around the beginning of June, but who knows if thats true. I could try to order one from the shop which said they had one, but the price would be around $90.
 
I'm all for thinking about this but..
How much of a problem are the stock guides?
They are 30 some years old so the rubber has gotten brittle and maybe the rubber to cast aluminum interface is failing of old age. But I think the biggest issue is improper cam chain adjustment. There is a fine line between just right and too tight, saw through the guide. Chains that never got adjusted and have been slapping on the guide thousands of times a minute may be just as bad as too tight. I have not heard of any mikesXS guide failures either. So I don't think it's a big hurry to reinvent a perfectly round wheel....... I can't build a guide for what, $32 that mikes charges.
 
here is what xsjohn done to help the longevity of the front guide. I think he used a bit of emery paper to smooth off the edges
 

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  • smooth out cam chain.jpg
    smooth out cam chain.jpg
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True, $32 isn't much for the replacement guide. But at some point parts just won't be available and it helps to plan ahead a bit. It's sort of like my Jensen's Lotus motor: the stock rod and main bearings are just about unobtanium, someone uncovered a bunch of Bedford truck engine bearings somewhere in Oz but they are expensive, like $600.00 US. BUT: for that $600.00 it is possible to have the block align bored and use small block Chrysler bearings, which will probably be in production till the sun goes dim. ;) The earlier cars also used a Sunbeam 4 speed gearbox which has been out of production for a long long time and the parts supply has dried up, it's possible to swap in either a Toyota transmission (that's what I did) or use a Ford 4 or 5 speed transmission. There's even an adapter plate being made as a pretty much bolt in for the Ford box.

Then there's the whole Mazda 12A rotary thing... good luck finding new rotors and/or housings.
 
The material lining the guide is nylon- a hard durable material with excellent wear properties. Its too bad a used guide can not be relined. The aluminum usually is fine- its just the wear strip has "popped" off. Im not positive, but Id bet originally the nylon was insert injected molded into the aluminum for maximum attachment. One could try riveting or screwing in a new wear strip- but if it were to fail it might be catastrophic.
 
Thinking out loud again- in the old days one would take their car/truck/tractor clutch plate to a shop and have new friction material bonded to it- thus rebuilding it. I wonder if such a shop could bond and material similar to our bikes clutch friction discs to the aluminum guide........Maybe you should spend the $90plus and get a new one now. (2 cents)
 
I don't think you'd want to put friction material on there like clutch plates. The whole point of the guide is to reduce friction and wear.
 
Why do you think they won't be available? Every year mike has his factory do a production run, every year they sell completely out. Sounds like everyone but last minute shoppers are happy. It's part of dealing with old equipment stock up on maintenance parts. And it happens on new stuff too; Every year guys scramble to find Prius snow tires at the last minute. The factories make their production runs months in advance and if sales are good the last guys in line goes home empty handed.
I agree that Yamaha may quit making them but they aren't dumb either, if they have a good selling part and have a vender with the tooling they reorder and restock. I would not be surprised if Mike and Yamaha get their guides from the same maker.
 
Here's what I want to know.

Let's say I find one on a dealer's shelf that's been there for who knows how many year's. Do I trust that is not old and brittle. Or should I snag it up while I can. What sucks is they want full retail,,,,$88.
 
CalsXS2
Especially when dealer cost is 47 now(or was 2 months ago). If they've had it awhile ............the cost was alot less.

One of our more valuable treasures says he wouldn't prefer an NOS over a new one(Mikes). Off gasing and age the reasons.
It could be the choices will make the decision. I would pick it up if for no other reason than someone else may need it. Chances are that person will never step foot in that shop to find out it is available. But may be looking here on the boards.
 
There's lots of stuff that goes out of production for various reasons but #1 is the survival rate. Good example: rear wheel bearings for my Jensen. The rear axle is a Vauxhall Viva (British GM) that was used in hundreds of thousands of cars (over half a million) in both Europe and Australia over probably a 25 year production run (if you include offshoots). But the bearing is no longer produced. It's just not cost effective for a bearing manufacturer to tool up for a production run that is for such a small number of pieces, relatively speaking.

Yamaha built between 250,000 and 500,000 XS650's (depending on who you ask) if you figure a 10% survival rate that's (taking the high figure) 50,000 remaining, if 20% of those are being restored/ridden that's 10,000 worldwide. That's a lot, BUT: when you figure what it costs to make parts which will sit on the shelf for a long time it's not squat.

That's why so many early Mustang restoration parts are made in Taiwan and China, the 'big guys' just don't have the time to fool with what is, to them, tiny production/profit numbers. Sure, there's money in resto parts; Dynacorn is making new 'bodies in white' for Mustangs and Camaros here in the States but 1) have you priced them and 2) they don't have to support a 10 acre plant with 5,000 employees.
 
Better pics, I just noticed this difference. Both came out of used engines with unknown history. A Yamaha design change somewhere along the way? The one with rubber still on it was a in a 72 the other I believe was in an 80

camguides 008.jpg

camguides 009.jpg
 

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