I believe my cams are not installed correctly on the left cylinder

[Falkirk]

I believe my cams are not installed correctly on the left cylinder *Fixed*

*I'm an idiot, my reading comprehension is not the best today. I reread the manual and there should be PUNCH marks on the left cams that line up. Sure enough, they are present and lined where they need to be.*


I am in the process of replacing the timing belt, waterpump, cooling hoses and a bunch of other stuff. Getting parts have been a nightmare, especially the waterpump. Well, I finally received the pump and am starting to dig in.

When I bought the bike, the bike idled fine and seemed to go ok. Just seemed sluggish after 3K RPM. I figured, no problem, I'll just go through it and fix what needs to be done.

When I lined up the cam belt per the service manual, all of the marks lined up, except cylinders 2 +4 camshafts. They are quite a bit off as you can see in the following picture.

The only way to get these cams to have their index marks pointing outward is to rotate the engine 1 and 1/4 turns to the T4.

So my dilemma, are the cams that far off, and should I reposition them so all of the cam index marks are facing outward when at T1 and cam pulleys aligned correctly?

Thanks for the help.

 

[vinny]

Yes sir! Those marks should be lined up with the milled surface of the head. Make sure you are lined up with the proper timing mark on the crank indicator. If this is your first time, then rotate the crank a few revolutions and observe the corresponding marks on the cams to see how they are supposed to line up. Pay attention, it can get confusing.

 

[Mark]

Be very careful!!! If you are incorrect you will ruin your cylinders and valves.

If your engine is running at all you might be reading the indicator marks wrong and when you 'fix' them...

 

[John OoSTerhuis]

The OP can correct me of I'm wrong, but it appears that he edited his post (red text) to tell us that he was mistaken and ALL IS WELL.

 

[vinny]

You are right at usual, John... that's why we love you so much!

 

[Falkirk]

Yeah, sorry guys. I did figure it out after I carefully read the service manual. Those punch marks are not very noticeable, but they are there and pointed in the correct direction.

 

[John OoSTerhuis]

The mods can correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that an original poster (thread starter) can delete his post (and the thread) as long as there have not been any replies posted to it. I know I have deleted individual replies that I have posted to someone else's thread.

 

[wjbertrand]

I don't ever recall using the punch marks to time the cams. The service manual refers to the timing marks (lines) as pictured by the OP. From the picture it is impossible to say the marks are positioned correctly without knowing exactly where the crank is positioned. There are four positions, one for each cylinder when checking the valve clearances. In those positions either the T 2,4 or T 1,3 marks should be aligned with crankshaft the reference mark on the case. In this case, evidently being the left bank, T2,4 should be aligned on the crank and the marks should either be pointing inward at each other or outward from each other and parallel to the gasket surface, depending on which cylider is being checked.

In the original photo, either the crank is not positioned at the correct indicator for the left bank or the cams are out of time.

 

[dwalby]

Re: I believe my cams are not installed correctly on the left cylinder *Fixed*

The only way to get these cams to have their index marks pointing outward is to rotate the engine 1 and 1/4 turns to the T4.

I know I'm a few weeks late, but there's much older posts going around so what the heck. The sentence above shows that the cams are actually properly timed, and the crank is not in the correct position in the photo, its probably at the T1/3 setting. Since the OP knew that the left bank cylinders are number 2/4, not sure why he didn't know that the crank should be at the T2/4 location before checking the cam alignment, which is what the sentence above suggests.