How do I crank with no head?

I have the head off to replace valve seals and also to find a knock. I need to turn over the bottom end of the motor with the starter but I don't want to FUBAR the cam chain.

How?????

 

Unless there is some reason I can't think of that you need to use the starter, just remove the chrome side cover on the left side of the engine (where mine says YICS) and use a wrench on the flats of the shaft you will see there. This will turn the engine over just fine. As a matter of fact, if have the automatic cam chain tensioner, turn the engine backwards about 1/8th of a turn and this can help the tensioner adjust itself.

 

Thank you for the quick reply!

BUT

I need to turn it over quickly to check for a knocking noise... to make sure it was either a poorly adjusted cam chain or bad valve clearance.

The only thing that will spin it fast enough is the starter. I don't want to reassemble the motor with new seals gaskets and shims just to find out the noise is coming from the lower end.

 

I would chalk this experience up to things one should do before disassembling.

I don't think it would be wise to turn over your engine with your starter. All you can do is hope for the best. You should hand crank it and feel for any abnormalities (crank it back and forth a few degrees each way and feel for slop).Reassemble and turn it over. If you hear the knock get a listening rod (screwdriver up to your ear) and isolate where it's coming from. If you have to disassemble it would be better to do it right away. You'll probably be able to reuse your seals.

Or... you could just pull the jugs off now and plastigage your crank and look for any problems. You got the heads off whats a little more work.

 

when I said crank I meant cam

 

by crank are you sure you didn't meen crank? I only ask because you mentioned pulling the cilinder jugs to check them out.

 

Wow... talk about bad spelling... sorry

 

if there is slack in the bottom end, it probably won't manifest itself without compression, i.e. with the heads off.

 

So if the clunk was there with the plugs out...(it was)... then it's most likely in the top end? I also got a suggestion for starter clutch? What do you think? Anyway, since I can't hold the bike closer to the computer so you can get a better listen, I'll just wrap up by saying thanks to everyone for all the help... At least I have a direction to go in.

 

The answer? 10w-40 and bare fingers under the cam chain while your dad hits the starter. What a father's day present it was to hear that motor turn over so quietly (see Knock knock... what's there? )

Anyway, the noise is definately in the top end and I can handle that. Now it's on to buying a gasket set and some shims and we should be burning gas soon.

Next questions will be about the top end so bear with me. Just a few more and I will hopefully be posting pictures of the interesting places the bike is going instead of the latest example of me losing my mind. I am looking forward to returning this Seca to it's rightfull owner (my dad) to replace the one he had to give up when the possibility of my riding it became a little to close to a good probability. He was always looking out for me... what a guy... Happy Fathers Day to all the guys who have to make those hard choices for their kids.

 

Syracuse:
That's where I went to College and where my twin daughters were born!
Happy Father's Day ... indeed.

The likelihood of a Bottom-end Bearing problem is very, very low.
The Top-ends on XJ-Bikeks are noisy. Real noisy!

The valve train being so close to earshot and not shielded by enything but the thin cover of the Cam Covers makes the top-end sound like machine-gun fire,, sometimes.

Put the thing together and do a Cam Chaim reset for all slack out. With the valves closer to their tight tolerances rather then loose ... some of that noise will diminish ...

But, not much!

 

What do you know. It's where I went to college as well. ESF was my choice and both my kids were born here (Community General).

It was a great fathers day, thanks hope yours was enjoyable as well