Brand new cam chain, no movement in tensioner

Mitch81special

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Hi all,
I'm just about finished a top end rebuild of my 81 and I installed a new cam chain. Boy was that thing tough to wrestle on there but I read this is normal. When re-installing the cam chain tensioner I noticed as I spun the engine that there was absolutely no movement in the pin, even with it loosened right off. Is this normal with it being a new chain? I'm thinking after a few hundred miles it should loosen up and I'd see some movement in that pin.
 
The movement comes from the spring in the tensioner taking up the slack in the chain. I suppose it's possible it's so tight there's no slack. With the adjust backed way off, try rotating the crank back and forth (a wrench on the rotor nut) and see if you can see any movement on the pin.
 
I'd also like to ask your guys opinion on my rivet heads. I know it's not a great job but should I try and flare it more?
20210115_184958.jpg
 
Yeah... that's ugly. :sneaky:
You might want to tap it down some more. Put a heavy weight of some kind against the other side of the link to back it up and gently tap the pins down 'till they're a little flatter.... a little more even. Light gentle taps.... better to take a hundred taps to do it than smack it too hard and break the cam sprocket.
 
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Yes, hand peen them some more, and like Jim said, tap-tap-tap. You can make it better. Here's one I finished off .....

IJz0fLZ.jpg


And here's what it looked like before, right after using the rivet tool, so as you can see, quite an improvement .....

7LhkYqQ.jpg
 
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