timing

[mytos232]

has anyone ever made a gear or chain driven timing conversion for the early goldwings? seems like it would be better to invest in one now instead of new belts if it exists

[WingAdmin]

That would be a fairly major undertaking.

Timing chains require an oil bath. The timing belts on the Goldwing are external to the engine, so there's no simple way of getting an oil bath out there to put the chain in.

Timing chains also require tensioners that adjust themselves in a very specific way, to account for wear and stretch - but without changing the timing. Timing belts don't stretch over their lives, so the existing tensioners, which bolt in place, wouldn't work.

Timing belts also act to dampen some of the pulses from the crank before they reach the cams, acting as a sort of harmonic balancer. Chains do not, and the transmission of those pulses directly into the valvetrain may cause damage that they were not designed to handle.

You would also lose some power, as drag from the oil bath plus friction of the chain on the sprockets and tensioners eats up some of the power being produced by the engine.

[mytos232]

thanks for the info, was mostly curiosity, previous to the oldwing ive mostly worked on harleys and its pretty common to change the timing chain for a gear setup to stop the whole nuking the oil pump problems.

[jeffcosmo]

Sad to say, but Honda simply does a better job of engineering their products than certain 'other' manufacturers.
Sure, there have been a couple hiccups, but the Gold Wing was not one of those.
Belts are simple, fairly easy to change, and widely used, even on Harleys.
Ducatis have used belts since the Pantah came out in 1980.
General Motors was the first, in 1966, with the Pontiac Sprint OHC six.
Use the K.I.S.S.

Cosmo