took the carbs to church and now I cant get the bike to start

At 4 minutes 30 seconds on your video if your camshaft marks are correct it is possible to move the chain one link to the right hopefully taking up the chain slack between the cams without turning the sprocket?

 

I mean I am going to have to try and see if I can but honestly I did my best to keep those suckers pretty taught, unfortunately I work until 11:30pm EST. I think for the Intake the sprocket and hole was partially off and I had to move the camshaft slightly clockwise to align it and then move it back CCW slightly to get the timing marks lined back up... perhaps if I had them slightly off and then turned them to the mark that would fix it?

 

Is the chain supposed to be on that sprocket? Could that be my issue?

 

The chain must be on that sprocket. It was on the sprocket at one point because when you were turning the crankshaft your camshafts were also turning.

 

I done think it was haha I had to take apart the top engine to get low enough to put it on the sprocket… it explains why I was having so much stinking trouble. It is now on that d*amn sprocket I just need to tighten everything back to speck and put in the chain guide and then I can retry this step. I have a lot of faith I will get it this next time!

 

You have identified the problem should be easy to get it timed now. We have all been there lol.

 

Well I was able to get it done with very little issue, my intake is slightly off like the link to the other thread talks about. Now I just need to replace and remeasure 3 shims and hopefully I can say I am done with the engine and start putting the dang thing back together!!!! thanks for all of the help and suggestions! Will keep you updated

 

You probably know this but when shimming your engine never turn the cams without shims in the buckets. Great it's sorted.

 

I’m not sure I did, I read the DIY steps for doing it, I think bigfritz put out? Would that just damage the bucket and make it less likely for them to sit properly?

 

Final result and I’m calling it close enough right now

 

Right sprocket looks a tooth off. Follow the dot up to the chain and you can see it is off by that much. Not sure how it will affect the intake valve.

 

https://xjbikes.com/forums/threads/scraped-cam-lobe-on-bucket-no-shim.59624/

 

Wouldn’t that be a tooth in the wrong direction making it looser between the camshaft and the intake?

 

Well sh*t, might have done that, will look now

 

It may affect your timing more than you want. If your T mark at the crankshaft timing plate is zeroed, the dot should be vertical. Otherwise it will cause the intake valve to open and close at the wrong time. How bad it would affect things, I'm not smart enough to know.

 

I was able to completely correct it, I’m really glad you caught that for me. Thanks

 

Was able to get the shims checked and I should only need a 250, will buy that off of Chacal and remeasure and hopefully that should be good!

 

Hey guys, bike update, I got the shims in and was able to set the fuel levels. all levels were between 2-3mm which is in spec. I cannot stress enough how helpful it was to make a pvc stand to keep the darn thing level!! put it back into the bike which wasn't too hard but realized once I was done, that I forgot to attach the fuel hose haha. fuel tank has some pin hole leaks despite treating it a few years ago. might look into getting that professionally done. Feeling excited and like I have to be so close to the finish line. Buying a fresh battery soon and will double check hook ups and will see if I can get it finally running!

 

Have you checked the cranking voltage with a multimeter? If your meter reads below 10 volts you won't get a spark. And did you clean the cold start jets in each float bowl when you did the carburettors?

 

cleaned/chem dipped the carbs and got a replacement kit from chacal, replaced the coils which were not in spec. I will check into cranking voltage... not sure what is meant by that but I have done some electrical checks but that was two or more years ago

 

Cranking voltage is the voltage taken by the starter motor etc, which can make the voltage to the TCI below what is required if the battery is not charged properly or it's faulty. Connect your multimeter set to 20 volts across your battery terminals and press the starter button while watching the reading. Voltage should not drop below 10 volts when the starter is turning the engine as this is needed to operate the transistors in the TCI, and therefore create the sparks at the plugs.

 

ahhh ok I have messed with the starter and replaced/cleaned parts of it. I have done this process before a long time ago, hopefully with a new battery this will work. anything else to check? i measured the spark plug gaps too

 

Wait till you get a battery or use a car battery and jump leads to try and start it. Best time to check things is when you have power to the bike with bike or car battery because then you can see for example an indicator doesn't work so you know which circuits in the harness, or bulb in this instance to check. Use the bike with things switched on to tell you what isn't working.

 

also if you have your battery hooked up it can fry the TCI if you use a trickle charger right? I am trying to find in the forums where someone said something about a situation where you can mess up some of the electrical stuff...

 

I keep batteries in my bikes all winter but hooked up to small chargers that maintain the charge, not continuously trickle.

 

So I hooked up the battery, the instrument lights turned on, horn worked, head light wasn’t able to test since I didn’t get the bike running. Good news is that the engine also turned over when I tried that. Latest issue is that turn lights will come on but left will not blink and right side kind of blinks but will stop after a couple blinks or not blink at all!

 

Great. Check your electrical connections to the indicators make sure they are clean.

 

Your signals will start working again once engine fires up. I’m not worried about your signals description at this point.... It’s normal.

 

So was having earlier issues of it having a high idle when the enrichment was engaged and started messing with the idle screw to no avail. And then I noticed it is leaking oil! So much so that the indicator turned on

 

Check to see if it’s actually coming from the valve cover gasket and then running down and/or blowing back toward the driver due to wind

 

I was in my garage but had the fan blowing on me so very possible. Will be checking that, could it be due to the bike reving up to 6k rpm with the choke on and causing too much pressure? going to also take some butane gas to the carbs and surrounding area. Throttle shaft seals have been replaced, valve clearance checked and adjusted (I feel like I did this the right way but am unsure if I measured incorrectly) and I bench synched the carbs. I just could not get it to idle without the choke off and the machine was very much warmed up and burnt if I touched it for too long. Now I fear I messed around with the idle screw too much... mixture screws are 2.5 turns out.

 

The reving should not normally cause leakage of oil at the crankcase joint. What is the red line on your tachometer, must be a good bit above 6k, so Yamaha would not expect it to leak oil. Also your crankcase breather pipe which goes from the stub on the gear change cover to the airbox sends crankcase gasses into the engine for the emmissions, but I don't know how much this reduces pressure in the crankcase. There is more chance as Hogfiddles stated it is coming from the cam cover gasket. I hope it is because it is an easy fix.

Just wondering what colour are the electrodes and insulator on your spark plugs?

 

Well I checked and the good news is that the valve cover gasket isn’t leaking but boy does the lower gasket pictured

 

I might be wrong but l am wondering if you can re-torque the head. Not sure if that would work.

 

I did have to go into the head earlier because the cam chain was off the sprocket. If the gasket was slightly torn or an o ring fell out, that would cause the oil to leak out right?

 

O rings which seal the oil ways to the head are inside metal locating dowel type things so they cannot fall out. I have not heard of these o rings failing. I think it's more likely the base gasket, not sure how it could tear but it looks like it has failed in some way. My suggestion providing it did not damage the head gasket seal was to save you removing the head and cylinders and might stop the leak.

 

Parts 9 and 10 are the dowel and o ring and there are two of each that seal the oilway to the head.

https://images.cmsnl.com/img/partsl...sa-crankcase-xj550hjk_bigyau0922b-11_4304.gif

 

that was the first thing I tried, took out the socket wrench and tightened both on that side. I’m happy I’m starting to think like the pros though!

 

When you work on engines slacken and tighten cylinder head nuts or bolts in the sequence shown in Haynes manuals or factory manuals. This is necessary to prevent the head being warped.

 

I had done that when I put it back together so it was probably a bad idea to tighten those two pass their recommended torque… well my next major question is when I pull it apart do I have to replace the two gasket? I know the valve head gasket should be fine but I am not sure since I put it all together tightened it and attempted to run it if that means they need replaced if I undo it all

 

If it was my bike I would replace the head and base gaskets, the o rings at the base of the oil gallery and the seals at the top of the oil gallery which seal the joint between the head and cylinders and the two copper washers below the nuts on the right of the cylinder head. There are also four big o rings on the bottom on the cylinder liners that should be replaced.

 

Even if all that is new from a kit I bought from Chacal? Within the last 2 years?

 

Just the head and base gasket then. It is unfortunate you have that oil leak after such a short time.

 

Well finally got around to taking it apart… o ring got crushed and ripped apart at the exact spot where it was leaking the oil previously. And found a new issue. The bolt in the last picture will not come out. It just keeps spinning. Thankfully I was able to work around it but is this an issue I should fix now or would I be ok to save it for a rainy day? Planning on getting a new o ring and base gasket, should I replace the head gasket?

 

Well I have no idea if I am royally screwed or not why torquing it to 10n-m this snapped off and my other one got stuck and just spins… how do I get the nut off and am I able to somehow replace that thread for the top end?

 

If the other one is spinning, the threads are stripped already. You’ll hafta get a paint scraper above the washer to pry down when you’re turning so you can walk it out. Once you lift the head off you can take it to have the broken one extracted, and then heli-coil the stripped one.

 

Thank you.

 

Finally got it off (thanks to your tip!) but the whole thing came out too! At least I can take this to a shop and get it fixed.

 

That’s ok if the whole stud came out! Looks like the nut side is what stripped. Just get a new stud, nut, and washer!

 

My current woes, hoping Chacal can help with the parts. A great lesson to use my fingers first