Cam Shaft Install and Followers

[Yakmandoo]

Hi guys, had the dreaded ticking noise appear last week, bought the manual cam chain tensioner, unfortunately that wasn't the cure, so I've stripped and open the valve cover, removed the cam shafts to find the 2 inlet followers nearest the cam chain are scalloped, the cam lobe looks fine though, has anyone had any luck getting BMW to replace worn followers (I'm out of warranty) seems like a manufacturing fail as all the others seem fine, also can I just replace 2 or the whole lot, had a little test run reassembling, it's not as straightforward as Mark's manual suggests, thanks in advance.

[smithy]

If the rockers look like that the cams must have suffered surely..??

Do you have a shim set handy..?? As you can pretty much guarantee you'll need at least two for the new rockers and possibly the older ones too. No two rockers are exactly the same sizes.

Smithy.

[Yakmandoo]

Not at the moment, I sorta guessed I'd need shims if I replaced a follower, any links for a set?

[Yakmandoo]

I've not measured the lobe on the camshaft, that aligns to these followers, I just inspected it, there seemed to be no wear, but I'll measure it against the seemingly undamaged ones.

[smithy]

Originally Posted by Yakmandoo

Not at the moment, I sorta guessed I'd need shims if I replaced a follower, any links for a set?

You can buy individual ones from BMW but you'll need to know the exact size to order before ordering.

I bought a "Wiseco" set from ebay several years ago, I believe 8.90mm diameter.

Smithy.

[Yakmandoo]

Just had a closer look, the cam lobe is indeed worn! I wonder if BMW will honor the fact this is a known issue.

[Antares]

Interesting... 2 cases inside of a couple weeks... Well lets see then. The other case was from the US, put it to BMW see if they'll cover it, if they do, the other person might have some recourse sending this post and decision to BMW USA see if they'll cover it... Assuming they do.

[1Jumper10]

Sorry about your luck. What year is your bike and how many miles?

[Yakmandoo]

2019 25k miles, always serviced, oil changed every 3k,really annoyed put me of BMW for the time being.

[Winger]

Among other things I run currently run 3 Beemers and the moment you laid a finger on that bike you could kiss goodbye to any help,I’ve had my XR since late 15 and the blip you are having is a new one on me.

I’m reasonably connected bike trade wise, but even now after all these years when things go pear shaped cheapest solution is deep breath and buy another engine,few years back decided to fit a Quick Shifter on my K1200r Sport and one of the many lessons I learned because the gears in the box were not undercut in very short time managed to eat the gearbox.

Purchased a low mileage K1300s motor and took the box out and fitted that by far the cheapest and least stressful of the options when I went through them,having been looking at ebay would be the same option again for an XR motor looking at prices.