After time, around 40-60k km, both cam chains and cam chain tensioners become old, cam chain will be loose, tensioners will be more stiff, that will create rattle noise and provide less engine power output, that’s why we need to replace the cam chain tensioners.

There are two cam chain tensioners at both side of the engine, as below diagram:

This is the list of spare part for both side of tensioners, bought from www.maxbmwmotorcycles.com

Easy one goes first – the cam chain tensioner at the bottom of right engine is the easier one, let’s change it first.

The right side cam chain tensioner set

We only need a wrench 17mm.

A little of comparison:

You can get it done after 5 mins 🙂

Now to the difficult part, the left one.

You will need a pliers (to remove air duct clamp) and a 15mm wrench to work with the tensioner.

This BMW clamp is really tight, need to work with it carefully, firmly, otherwise you will damage it and can not be reused. User pliers to hold two raised nodes on the clamp, carefully and firmly squeeze the pliers for around 3-5mm, you should hear a click, then the clamp is released.

Remove the clamp and the air duct to make room for the tensioner removal

Use the 15mm wrench to open the tensioner. You may need to do some modification to your wrench for ease of removal. This work really need your patient, bit by bit. After opening some rounds, you may be able to use your fingers to do for the rest.

The old one is really stiff, almost no damping

Install the new tensioner, perform housekeeping. That’s it for the cam chain tensioner replacement for BMW R1200GSA