02 fe400 cam bearing failure

Cam bearings do fail from time to time. Just replace them with a good quality bearing. It would probably be a good idea to update the rockers if they have not been done. There is also an update for the counterbalancer and bearings as well as the main bearings.

My 2002 650SM cam bearings let go at about 110 hours. The engine itself had done 170 hours though but I replaced the cam chain, cam bearings and rockers at 60 hours.

The resulting failure caused a very noticable and loud rattle but the engine continued to run. After abruptly stopping the engine the cam was bent and the rocker cover damaged.

After that I got the engine rebuilt and all bearings changed.

Lloyd

where are you from kegerator?

go to the foot of this post and you can click on a hyperlink to a document about the FE400. it should prove very useful i hope.

you should note that the cam follower bearings had to be uprated and it's advisable that you replace the camchain with a stronger one. the tensioner blade should be uprated and the tensioner button itself can still be used but should be modified.

it may be a good idea to do all the bearings in the engine at this time to be safe.

the counter balancer bearing that berger is on about isn't prone to failure on the 400 and i would just change it now without even the necessity to uprate it in any way.

regards

Taffy

You can contact member Dale Lineaweaver for info on the cam and head work.
http://www.d-lineaweaver.com/

ok kegerator

keep an eye on ebay for a 100mm kit. they come up once every two months on the european side. you can also bore and re-nikasil yours while getting a piston from moto exotica.

the standard 400 cam is weak causing countless downchanges to get it to go. the '53' or '55' OEM cams are really grunty off the bottom and rip your arms off. the lineweaver LX2 cam is ever so slightly even better than either of those.

all tuning tips are in the owners doc as i've repeatedly said. if you need to know more go into; forums, race report, taff's racing season and each change is shown in increments there and what effect it had. there were posts that specifically addressed each tuning mod from around that time so put 'taffy' in a search and come up with a few from around the time i put it in a race report.

to be honest, if you're not technical, just put it together and buy a 501. don't blow dead money on a machine unless you get an ulterior kick out of it.

regards

Taffy