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When you say pulls, do you mean shims? As in the little spacers that sit between the valve stem and silver bucket, which the cam lobes press down against? If yes, then the shims can all be different sizes to obtain the right gap for all the intake and exhaust clearances.

The shims are 7.5mm in diameter and do not have to be from triumph. Companies like hotcams and KL make sets you can purchase, but you can also check eBay or search on Google to find distributors that sell even individual shims if you figure out what sizes you need.

When you talk about spots on your cams, you're going to have to post pictures of what you mean as I don't quite understand. So long as your journals aren't scored, you should be ok. Scoring will appear as lines or grooves along the circumference of a journal, the machined circular surface between the lobes that the cam sits on in the head and is clamped in place.

As to why your can chain feels so tight, that part confuses me a bit. The only device that controls cam chain tension, is the cam chain tensioner which is located in the upper right side of the head, when looking from the throttle body side of the engine. Sounds like your cam tensioner may be failing or perhaps one of the cam chain guides is damaged. What year is your bike as pre 2009 the tensioner were mechanical and 2009+ are hydraulic. What is the mileage on the bike? What are the clearances you measured for each of the intake and exhaust valves?

It is possible that one of your cams skipped a tooth on alignment and that could explain the extra noise to some extent as well as the sudden difficulty in starting the bike. If that is what happened, then consider yourself very fortunate as normally when this happens on a running engine, many teeth are skipped and it leads to catastrophic top end damage when the valves hit the piston.

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Try to get a picture of the cam alignment as well as the crank, it's normal for the crank to be off a little bit when the cams are aligned due to cam chain stretch, but this will be minimal, as in the pics below. My 2011 with 19,000 km, original chain.

So the tensioner on your bike is a manual (externally adjustable) unit? Too much tension is never a good thing, but unless it's is ridiculously tight it shouldn't create any issues. Please post pictures of the gap you are referring to since I'm a bit confused.

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Is it a manual chain tensioner that you can adjust, or is it the original spring loaded tensioner?
Out of curiosity what country are you in?

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I'll check my manuals at home, but pretty sure if there is any runout or damage in the journals, you're looking at a new head, cams and ladder as they are a matched set. Not trying to scare you, but that's off the top of my head. I'll be home in a few hours and check for you.

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