It's alive again! May it stay this way!

[clcorbin]

Well, if you have been following my "valve for a 79F" thread, you know my timing chain broke and I bent a couple of valves.

I am VERY glad to say that the bike is running once more. The valve train is definitely quieter than before with the exception of one valve that is ticking slightly due to too much lash.

I'm not TOO surprised by this as I did have to re-lash the three valves that where replaced, but I did it on the bench. I'll pull the valve cover off in a bit and see where I am with each valve now that the engine has gotten up to temperature and ran for a bit. Things should be fully seated... It will also give me an opportunity to re-verify that my timing is good on each cam.

The other thing I took care of today is sync my carbs. I can't remember when it was done last, so I knew it needed to be done. My carb sync came in about one day after the chain broke, so this is the first opportunity I have had to see where it was at.

And where it was was NASTY! When I first hooked it up, only the left two cylinders even pulled any alcohol up into the tube! I actually had to sit down and figure out which way to turn the center adjuster to bring the pairs close enough to get all four cylinders showing on the gauge. Thankfully, I was finally able to get everything dialed in and a nice flat line across all four cylinders.

I think I am going to go pull the bike out of the shop and take it around the block a few times to see how things are running before I let it cool off so I can re-lash the valves. Then I'll drop the pan (to TRY and find the missing master link from the original timing chain!) and change the oil and filter and HOPEFULLY have this bike back up and running WITH NO MORE PROBLEMS for a good long time!

Would it be too much to hope for better fuel economy??? I've been getting around 31 mpg in my school commute (70% interstate and 30% city streets).

[CatatonicBug]

Good for you!! Glad to hear you got it running. I know some get better than 30 mpg, but that's about my average, especially in these cold temps when I have to use the choke more. I will eventually invest in the Dynojet kit and hope for upper 30's or low 40's.

[Larrym]

Lifting Yourself By Your Own Bootstraps.

Clint,

I'm pleased you/the bike are on the road again and now attending to those remaining details which make bike ownership an ongoing effort: Mpg, the perfect sync, etc. You know, all that small stuff that isn't trivial enough to ignore?

I'm just saying that when the cam chain broke you could'a bailed out. "Too Difficult, $$$, Not enough Time to do it, Can't find the Parts, etc." Any number of ways to explain away why you could'a taken the path of least resistance and with many folks supporting that option.

Please count me as one who holds your choice/actions in high regard.

[DGXSER]

Congrats on the rewards of the hard work!!! (But do find that link before you run that engine much, hate to have that ruin a gear in there or something on you now).

There is no wine so sweet as the one squeezed from the fruit of your own labor!!

[clcorbin]

Well, good news, bad news. Par for course I guess....

The bike is running pretty good. I picked up the oil so I can drop the pan and find that damn link. I wanted to run it for a bit to give any crap that got into the oil while the engine was open a chance to find the oil filter before I change it and the filter out.

The "bad" news is that I realized that I did NOT install the valve stem seals on #4 exhaust and #2 intake! I did not want to install them until the valves had been lapped in so I wouldn't be spinning the valve against a seal that is designed for translational motion. But after getting the valves all done, I COMPLETELY spaced it before putting everything back together!!!!!

And as I can't figure out any way to remove the retainers with the head installed, the head has to come back off. Which means the cams have to come out, which means the carbs have to come off, which means... ... ...

Yes, I DO feel like a COMPLETE IDIOT for doing this to myself! To make it worse, this is finals week at school, so I won't really have time to dig into this thing until Wednesday at the earliest and possibly Thursday instead.

And I was REALLY looking forward to taking the bike to school tomorrow! I'm half tempted to pull the pan tonight and get the old link out of there and a fresh batch of oil in it and then just run it as is until Thursday. Given how the lifters sit over the valves and how they fit to the head, there can't be THAT much oil that gets in there in the first place. Of course, I'm probably overlooking something that could cause trouble down the road if I DO run it for a few days without those valve stem seals in place.

Can anyone think of a reason why this would NOT be a good idea???

[Yard Dogg]

Don't tear your head off yet. There's another way.

Remove your cams and make sure not to drop your timing chain down. Set the cylinder selected for the valve seal install on top dead center, then pressurize the cylinder with an air compressor. Then you should be able to remove the valve spring and put the valve seal on. Make sure you brace the crankshaft from rotating somehow. The idea of the crank shaft being at top dead center is to keep the valves from dropping into the cylinder while your valve spring is off. The air pressure will keep the valve up, but due to human error and the nature of the work, at one time or another the valve will drop letting air past it and you'll be glad the piston is at the top.

To be honest, I've never done this on a bike, so I don't know exactly what it looks like inside these engines, but I've done it on cars and it's not so bad. Others on here might have some good advice to ad to this. I just think it would be a good way to save time and money buying new head gaskets and going through all that work again.

[tarzan]

Actually you probably will have to take the head off to install those seals.
It would be real tough to compress the spring and get the keepers in and out with the limited area to work in.You would have to fab up some kind of spring compressor to get in there too.
I have done it in car engines too, however on the cars I have done it to, you could use the rocker stud to anchor the compressor.

[bikerphil]

Yep, just take the head off and replace them, the head gasket can be re-used. I don't think you will cause any damage running it this way, it may smoke though.

[clcorbin]

I've started the tear down. The cams are out and I did find the source of the noise. Two exhaust valves had excess clearance. Thankfully, going to the next size should put them right in the middle of the spec.

I thought about trying the compressed air method, but quickly realized that, unlike a pushrod V8, there just isn't a whole lot of room to work nor is there any good way of attaching a valve compressor. Oh well. It's not THAT hard to pull the head. I just hate having to pull the carbs. The are always a pain in the butt to reinstall.

On the bright side, I AM getting much better at pulling and stabbing the carbs! That's just not the sort of thing I really want to be an expert at...

[Yard Dogg]

Right on. I read your other posts about your bike and have to say nice job. That's saying it very lightly. I was glad to hear about your successes cause it keeps me motivated on mine. In fact, I was content to sit in here on my butt all day today, then thought about all the fine work the rest of you are doing and instead went out and tore some things down and did some much needed polishing on the frame to remove oxidation. It's spiffing up pretty good now.

[clcorbin]

That's the nice thing about having a community like this. It does help with the motivation. When I pulled my transmission apart, if I didn't KNOW that the counter shaft would come out without splitting the case, I don't think I would have tried it! Especially after the first 5 attempts to get it freed failed.

[DGXSER]

Great work! Yeah the carbs become almost second nature after a while, not that you loo forward to doing it, but kinda that "time to make the donuts" thing.

I've done the gear repair three times now, and every time I do it, somethign else gives me a royal pain. The first one I did on Thunderstruck, I fought for 6 hours or more to get those gears to go back in. The second one was a pain to get them out (they practically fell out on the first one.) Then on Banshee, it was the shift forks that gave me an absolute fit. But with the help, guidance, and encouragement of the gang her at XS11, I have been successful every time.

[clcorbin]

I do think it is back up and running. This is midterm week, so I have not had a whole lot of time to work on the bike due to studying for tests, finishing projects, homework, etc. But, I was able to spend several hours on the bike today!

The bike had been sitting with the tank and seat off, the valve cover off and both cams out. I had picked up the two shims I need (that led to ANOTHER 1 long trip to the other side of town when they accidentally gave one 29.5mm shim...), so all I had to do was pull the head, break apart two valve assemblies and install the valve stem seals.

Then reassemble everything once again... From starting to unbolt the head to having everything back together and the bike running once more only took about 5 hours.

I did have one more bit of fun as I had to pull the oil pan and (to retrieve the original master link) and oil filter. The pan came off and went back on fairly easy and yes, I did find the link and plate. From it's location under the baffles, I probably could have just left it there, but I wouldn't want to take a chance on it.

The fun part came when I put the oil filter back on. Apparently, I pinched the o-ring. Right at the back up against the oil pan, so I couldn't see it at all. I DID find out about it about 4 seconds after developing oil pressure (by turning the engine over with no plugs until the oil pressure light) when I noticed a puddle about 8" in diameter under my bike that was growing quickly!

Thankfully, I was able to reuse the o-ring from the "old" filter as it was only a month old or so and was still in perfect shape. I WAS pissed off as I drove my car to the local autoparts place to pick up a few more quarts of oil though!

But, it is running now. I took it for a short cruise to see how things where running. The valve train is a lot quiter than it has been in a long time. Shimming those two exhaust valves really made a difference. It took some more playing with the pilot mixture and idle speed to get things happy, but it is definitely running smoother than it has in a while.

About the only issue left is it definitely has a flat spot between 5000 rpm and 6000 rpm. It pulls hard up to 5k and it pulls hard after 6k, but right there between 5k and 6k, it falls on it's face. I am assuming it is running a bit lean right at the transition, but I am not sure exactly what I need to tweak to get this dialed in. Any suggestions?

On the bright side, I am REALLY looking forward to riding my bike to school tomorrow! Due to the way parking is on campus, when I take my car, I have to park way South of campus and then take a shuttle bus to one spot on campus. Then it takes another 10 minutes to walk to my class.

When I ride the bike, I can usually park within 100 feet of any of my classes. Much, MUCH better! It knocks about 25 to 30 minutes each way off my commute. And riding the bike is a LOT more fun than driving the car. Of course, that part does change a bit when it is 20F when I head out... But Spring is almost here!