Advice on this Kz550

Have you lubed and made sure your spark advance is working properly?
Steve

carwash wrote: Hey Mcren, fellow KZ550A owner here, I'm in Brooklyn. Not a lot of these around. I remember seeing yours on Craigslist a few weeks ago. I picked mine up this winter. It's needed a few little things here and there, but a pretty solid bike and a blast to ride. These bikes have a fairly steep rake angle and handle beautifully.
Let me know if you want to meet up sometime and compare notes. Also as it goes with vintage bike ownership, I'm amassing a small pile of extra parts, so who knows, maybe I'll have something you need/want for your bike. I do have a 4 into 1 Mac header for this model I"m not using.
Anyhow, happy wrenching!

Great awesome to know

carwash wrote: Hey Mcren, fellow KZ550A owner here, I'm in Brooklyn. Not a lot of these around. I remember seeing yours on Craigslist a few weeks ago. I picked mine up this winter. It's needed a few little things here and there, but a pretty solid bike and a blast to ride. These bikes have a fairly steep rake angle and handle beautifully.
Let me know if you want to meet up sometime and compare notes. Also as it goes with vintage bike ownership, I'm amassing a small pile of extra parts, so who knows, maybe I'll have something you need/want for your bike. I do have a 4 into 1 Mac header for this model I"m not using.
Anyhow, happy wrenching!

Great awesome to know a fellow Nyer has this bike as well. I know the feeling I've only test ridden the bike for ten minutes and loved how it pulled. I'll definitely keep in touch.

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Guys I think I've screwed up big time, rotating the crankshaft the feeling as I approached tdc was accompanied with a whistle compression I'm guessing. however I have a bad feeling I've might have jumped the cam chain (possibly even bent some valves).

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swest wrote: Have you lubed and made sure your spark advance is working properly?
Steve

I did not I'll have to check the manual on how to do that

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carwash wrote: Also, in a couple of your pics it looks like you have only one throttle cable?

Yeah I only found one throttle cable when removing the carbs

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It's easy enough to confirm if the cam chain has jumped... Are your camshaft alignment markings outta whack or are they still synchronized?
NB: You have to press down on the chain between the cam gears (just as your valve cover's chain guide does when bolted on) in order to see the rear cam gear's alignment mark and all the chain links as shown in the manual. I learned this one the hard way :blush:

My 550 (and 650 for that matter) makes whistle like noises when manually rotating the engine to TDC. Removing your spark plugs makes things a lot easier on you by allowing the compression to escape (and the whistle noises stop).
If you really did jump the chain and forced it through a full rotation, you would have felt some pretty good resistance as a valve pressed into the piston head. I'm not certain but even if the chain jumped one link, I think it's still able to rotate through without interference but likely would not start/run due to timing problems.

It's a push/pull throttle so there should be two cables,
but it sounds like you have bigger fish to fry in the meantime.

Mcren wrote:

carwash wrote: Also, in a couple of your pics it looks like you have only one throttle cable?

Yeah I only found one throttle cable when removing the carbs

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Check my signature for more details about 550 cam timing and a warning to prevent valvetrain damage.

Sorry for the late response, hectic past few days took the girlfriend to Atlantic city for her 25th birthday this past weekend. Beautiful city, tons of food and so many places to bet away all your earthly possessions.

I'll have to double check the timing once I get back to the garage later on today. I did record a video, difficult with one hand but hopefully it helps.




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wrenchmonkey wrote: It's easy enough to confirm if the cam chain has jumped... Are your camshaft alignment markings outta whack or are they still synchronized?
NB: You have to press down on the chain between the cam gears (just as your valve cover's chain guide does when bolted on) in order to see the rear cam gear's alignment mark and all the chain links as shown in the manual. I learned this one the hard way :blush:

My 550 (and 650 for that matter) makes whistle like noises when manually rotating the engine to TDC. Removing your spark plugs makes things a lot easier on you by allowing the compression to escape (and the whistle noises stop).
If you really did jump the chain and forced it through a full rotation, you would have felt some pretty good resistance as a valve pressed into the piston head. I'm not certain but even if the chain jumped one link, I think it's still able to rotate through without interference but likely would not start/run due to timing problems.

I hope I did not mistake the resistance I felt for the difficulty of plugs still being in there..I did not know about pressing on the chain.

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carwash wrote: It's a push/pull throttle so there should be two cables,
but it sounds like you have bigger fish to fry in the meantime.

Mcren wrote:

carwash wrote: Also, in a couple of your pics it looks like you have only one throttle cable?

Yeah I only found one throttle cable when removing the carbs

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Might as well attach a picture of the carbs since they are off.
Hmm strange. I'll give it a look over again, but on the carb bank itself there was just one in between the four of them.

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loudhvx wrote: Check my signature for more details about 550 cam timing and a warning to prevent valvetrain damage.

Been reading it over a few times, at this point I'm thinking I might have messed up in some point in time

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