M87
Active Member
Like the title says, I need help.
First a little background here, even though I have a house in Edmonton my work means that I am spending most of my time in Victoria. This is only the third time I have been home since January, and these visits are usually for only three or four days.
My bike has been apart since last fall because while adjusting the valves I noticed a broken spring retainer. I had all the retainers replaced by Cycle Works and had them check the head. At the same time I decided to have them split the cases and replace some transmission parts. Because there was also an issue with the cases they were also replaced.
I did all the other work myself, that means I took the engine out of the bike and removed the head and cylinder and stripped down as much as I could until I got to the point where I needed special tools.
Now the bad stuff. While reassembling the bike in Jan/Feb I was unable to rotate the engine by hand after installing the camshafts. I assumed I did something wrong so I left it until my next visit.
I reassembled it again, but this time I removed the spark plugs in case it was compression I was feeling, but still had the same problem.
This time I took pictures to be sure everything was right.
The cranks was in the right position, I later verified that pistons 1 and 4 were at the top of the stroke.
The exhaust cam was in the right position.
And the intake was in the right position. At the time I counted the pins to be sure that there were the right number between exhaust and intake (28).
Notice that the camchain doesn’t sit on the teeth perfectly, this happened when I installed the tensioner and rotated the engine a few degrees by hand.
I removed and reinstalled the cams several times but always got the same result.
I left town with the engine in this condition but while I was away I asked someone else to pull the cams and make sure I hadn’t put the pistons in backwards, with the intakes at the front. They pulled the head and said the pistons were right but there was some grit on a couple of pistons, evidence that the valves were contacting the head when I hand cranked the engine. They also dropped a shim inside the engine. Ooops.
At this point I had the engine taken back to Cycle Works with the instruction to find the shim and find out what’s wrong with the cam timing.
The engine was at Cycle Works for 4 weeks in which time they found the shim but didn’t do anything else.
I got home from BC last night and reinstalled the cams but I am still having the same problem. When I try to rotate the engine after installing the cam chain tensioner I meet mechanical resistance and I cant turn the engine over.
I have not put a great deal of pressure on the engine because I don’t want to bend anything but I did get up at 5:30 this morning to take more pictures and write this.
Crank is in the right spot.
The cams look like they are properly timed.
Close up of intake.
Hard to tell but the cam lobe on the intake side is pointed at about the 4 o’clock position.
More pictures in case someone can see something wrong.
So here is the bottom line. This weekend may be the last chance I will have to race in Edmonton this year, perhaps ever.
Even if I do get this fixed I will still have to get the engine back in the bike and finish prepping it for the race weekend.
If anyone knows what I am doing wrong or knows a COMPETENT mechanic who can fix this on such short notice please let me know.
Thanks
Mike Cormier 87 Red
First a little background here, even though I have a house in Edmonton my work means that I am spending most of my time in Victoria. This is only the third time I have been home since January, and these visits are usually for only three or four days.
My bike has been apart since last fall because while adjusting the valves I noticed a broken spring retainer. I had all the retainers replaced by Cycle Works and had them check the head. At the same time I decided to have them split the cases and replace some transmission parts. Because there was also an issue with the cases they were also replaced.
I did all the other work myself, that means I took the engine out of the bike and removed the head and cylinder and stripped down as much as I could until I got to the point where I needed special tools.
Now the bad stuff. While reassembling the bike in Jan/Feb I was unable to rotate the engine by hand after installing the camshafts. I assumed I did something wrong so I left it until my next visit.
I reassembled it again, but this time I removed the spark plugs in case it was compression I was feeling, but still had the same problem.
This time I took pictures to be sure everything was right.
The cranks was in the right position, I later verified that pistons 1 and 4 were at the top of the stroke.
The exhaust cam was in the right position.
And the intake was in the right position. At the time I counted the pins to be sure that there were the right number between exhaust and intake (28).
Notice that the camchain doesn’t sit on the teeth perfectly, this happened when I installed the tensioner and rotated the engine a few degrees by hand.
I removed and reinstalled the cams several times but always got the same result.
I left town with the engine in this condition but while I was away I asked someone else to pull the cams and make sure I hadn’t put the pistons in backwards, with the intakes at the front. They pulled the head and said the pistons were right but there was some grit on a couple of pistons, evidence that the valves were contacting the head when I hand cranked the engine. They also dropped a shim inside the engine. Ooops.
At this point I had the engine taken back to Cycle Works with the instruction to find the shim and find out what’s wrong with the cam timing.
The engine was at Cycle Works for 4 weeks in which time they found the shim but didn’t do anything else.
I got home from BC last night and reinstalled the cams but I am still having the same problem. When I try to rotate the engine after installing the cam chain tensioner I meet mechanical resistance and I cant turn the engine over.
I have not put a great deal of pressure on the engine because I don’t want to bend anything but I did get up at 5:30 this morning to take more pictures and write this.
Crank is in the right spot.
The cams look like they are properly timed.
Close up of intake.
Hard to tell but the cam lobe on the intake side is pointed at about the 4 o’clock position.
More pictures in case someone can see something wrong.
So here is the bottom line. This weekend may be the last chance I will have to race in Edmonton this year, perhaps ever.
Even if I do get this fixed I will still have to get the engine back in the bike and finish prepping it for the race weekend.
If anyone knows what I am doing wrong or knows a COMPETENT mechanic who can fix this on such short notice please let me know.
Thanks
Mike Cormier 87 Red
