GS550 Camchain tensioner...

[Young man Joe]

Hi there folks, happy Friday evening to you, I hope you can offer a little advice... I've just sold my '98 750 Katana and got an '82 GS550EZ off good old Eblag a long way from where I live, so I didn't see it before I bought it, doh...anyway, once in my garage I sorted a few obvious problems like no vacuum hose between the fuel tap and carbs, leaking fuel line, cracked front tyre, years old oil by the looks of it etc etc...So, it runs surprisingly well, but after it's first gentle 50 mile outing I noticed an oil leak from the camchain tensioner. 

So in the Haynes manual it seems like a pretty straight forward job to replace the gasket and various 'O' rings, but my question is this : do I need to set any of the pistons to TDC ? There is no mention of this in the manual but on the internet there were instructions on this task that said you had to get pistons 1 and 4 (I think) to TDC... Any advice / opinions on this ?

Thanks, Joe.

[johnr]

its more important that you dont let the engine move when youve removed the tensioner. so dont turn it over or touch the starter button once youve taken the tensioner out.

[Young man Joe]

Great, that will make it a bit easier for me...  Now I have to just find the time to actually get the job done !  Thanks for you advice.