Another valve shim ? for a KZ650

When I look through the hole at the top of my points plate I see the timing mark. This is the metal tit that sticks straight down. It also has a raised line on it. I take a 17MM wrench and turn the engine with the bolt sticking out of the middle of the points plate (while lifting the cam chain up/taut, to ensure that there is no slack in it). As You take the slack out of the cam chain, and turn the engine with the wrench, you want to see TI FI 1.4II on the "timing advancer", you see this through the timing hole in the points plate. You will be at TDC on cylinders 1 and 4 if you line the timing mark (metal tit sticking down that does not move) with the ( I ) mark on TI, you know, back to TI FI 1.4II on the "timing advancer"..... It's the line to the right of the "T".... Now your war pony's 1 and 4 pistons are at Top Dead Center. Now lift your cam chain up/back gently so that you can roll your cams back or forward, whatever is needed to line them up (appropriate horizontal line on cam sprocket), then do a cam chain pin count. This is the basic idea. I had to fiddle fart a few times with my cams to ensure that they were lined up and my timing down below was still dead on. I hope that this fumbling explanation makes the service manual procedure clearer.

<--- IN (between 45th and 46th pin, on your bike, you'll have to check)

---> Z6EX (the numbers/letters will be upside down and the reference line will be above them)

As far as I can tell my manual agrees with what luvmykaw wrote. So I got everything where it should be, put it all back together, and hit the starter. After a few rotations it started to sound like it wanted to fire up. Then it backfired, thru the exhaust, and I shut it down and came in the house.

Meanwhile I'm watching the days I could be riding go by one by one. I know it's a simple matter of getting the timing right. I've just never had to time a bike engine before so I'm having to guess that my interpretations are correct. It's closer now at least. Still very frustrating.

Cant really offer much more than what the fella's here have given ya......just words of encouragement:
"Hang in there!"
"You'll get-er-done yet"
"Dont let it outsmart ya!!"
"Show it who's boss"
OH!....go in every so often and talk to wife/girlfriend/whatever.....makes life better all the way around, trust me!

I know that a "cold" compression test will not show much. But ! it will show something, like if all the cylinders are basicaly equal.
Don't expect high readings (mine averaged around 50 psi)
This could be a starting point Bud, if one cylinder reads a lot lower than the rest, you may have a bent/stuck valve.
If you have an exhaust valve that is not fully closing, gas will load up in the exhaust system and backfireing will happen but that can also happen if the cylinder's are flooded w/gas.

Your not alone w/your no-start, my bike was down for a month due to zero valve clearance on three of my intake's.
It took me that long to find it, I cleaned my carbs three times, went thru my ignition, wore my manuals out and almost bought new coils before I checked the valves.


Post edited by: ~DW~, at: 2005/11/06 22:44

Thanks, I'll go do a compression check and see what it says!