1978 XS Eleven E wont start

[natemoen]

Get out your manual and check the valve timing. On the cam gears where the bolts connect the gears to the cams there is also a little nub on the raised landing where the bolt mates the points out towords the gears outer edge. Those little nubs need to both be pointing upwards when the cam dots are lined up on the cam caps.

Also, have YOU ever had this bike running?

[IanDMacDonald]

My best guess is four bent intake valves. Go ahead and follow the book on removing the head. Doesn't take that long once the exhaust is off. Removing the valves is easy using a modified c-clamp shown in one of the threads. Make sure you don't loose those valve keepers. Do one cylinder at a time and stay organized. They say to pour gas down the spark plug holes, and where gas comes out is a bent valve. I'd guess all four are bent, so go ahead and pull all four. Clean-up the head's gasket surface, lap new valves, install them, new head gasket, oil head bolts, re-torque, install ACCT while chain is off (I did not split mine), follow manual installing cams, and ur bike is good to go. Biggest pain for me during that whole process is always the exhaust system, as I work by myself. OEM exhaust install is not exactly the easiest by yourself.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Rocker,

When the crankshaft timing wheel is on the T at the pointer, are both cams showing the alignment DOTS straight up with the arrows on the cam bearing journals. Our bets are that they are NOT in time. And there's a good chance you may have been more than just 4 valves. When 2 valves try to occupy the same space, they push against each other, and both can get bent, intake and exhaust! As stated, with the head off, the valve springs will try to pull the valves closed. With the spark plugs still in the head, you pour some fuel or other liquid into the head recess and see IF/where it leaks out of. But I had one that was just slightly bent, I couldn't see it very well until I removed the springs, and then I could spin the valve in the head, and I could then SEE the wobble of the valve from being bent! And the valves are not available very much, as well $$, so geting a complete head for the valves isn't a bad idea. Good Luck.

T.C.

[XrockerS]

Damn.. yeah my gut feeling was that the valves were bent and I figured it was at least four of them. Ok guys I'm not at home at the time but I'll check to see if the dots do indeed align with the arrows. Probably not the P.O. was a poser douchebag I know him from the scene I hang out at. He wouldn't sell me the bike so he sold it to some other guy on craigslist. The other guy had it for a week and couldn't even get it to crank due to a mess in the wiring harness. He reposted it for a cheaper price and I got it off him . The poser probably didn't want me buying it so I wouldn't see the mess he had caused. He claimed to know a lot about bikes his vast 6 month riding experience lol

I will also check valve clearances to have an idea of how many of the valves are bent. I didn't check them last time because I didn't want force the crank by hand but I will this time.

T.C. I saw a 1978 head on Ebay for rather cheap it comes with valves but I'm kind of iffy about buying it thinking that the valves in there might be bent as well. hahaha I think I'm just paranoid now. The guy selling it is from my town so I might just contact him to see if I can come down and just look at the parts maybe I can better determine whether the valves look good or not.

I had a copy of a manual saved on my computer but it was lost when my motherboard went out. can anyone point me in the right direction to download another manual. I have tried Bug's website but it doesn't seem to work.
I want to read up as much as I can about head removal before I embark on this journey.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Rocker,

First, here's Catatonic Bug's current site link and I just clicked on an owner's manual link and it started downloading just fine. The Service Manual is ~200 MB's so you need to allow some time before it will show up. IT's a PDF and if you just click on the link, it will try to OPEN in your browser. I think you can right click and SAVE AS instead, so you can see/follow the download progress!?

As to the 78 head, like we said, bring some light weight petroleum product that you can pour into the head while it's upside down, so you can check that all of the valves are sealed, not leaking. IF it has the cams still in it, then some of the valves may be open. It can be tricky to try to rotate the cams IN SYNCH without the chain to be able to get the valves closed to check for leaks...without running the risk of causing a valve to come out and hit an opposing one that would be already sticking out since you can't turn both cams in proper synch without the chain. To be able to install it, you're going to need to remove the cams anyways to be able to rotate them to get the alignment dots straight up before reinstalling and putting the chain on.

Don't know if the seller would be willing to allow you to actually just remove the cams so that ALL of the valves could then SEAT for leak testing?

Then, you're also going to want to do at least a good lapping to ensure that they are conditioned for making a good seal. Might as well install new valve seals while it's off/apart also.

T.C.