1981 XJ650 Alaskan Bobber Project

The lift table was purchase through these folks:
http://www.cemlifts.com/motorbike-lifts/
I paid $700 and it comes with a very nice wheel clamp, rear drop-out and scissor jack. I'm very impressed with the quality/sturdiness for it being constructed overseas.
I picked up that old Phazer this year for my son....he graduated from a Sno Sport...I love those old Yamaha machines!
I hadn't planned on running a fork brace, but may after the recommendation of many on the board. The previous owner ground off the fender mounting tabs, so I'll have to fabricate some new ones. Hoping to get the motor installed in the next couple of weeks. I'm also building an XS400 café for my son and its taken priority over my bike

-Todd

 

You sound like an ok dad, I guess! Interested in adopting a full grown adult who's still kind of a child?

 

Harbor Freight has those lifts on sale with a coupon for $299 USD.

Yeah that Phazer is cool too.

 

Harbor Freight definitely does not have lift tables like mine for sale. The ones for $299 are junk!

 

I don't even know what Harbor Freight is. Never seen one in Canada!

 

Hello All,
Well, I would like to get some input form the group. I finally got the top half of the motor together and I'm having some issues with the cam timing. I can't get the marks on the cams to line up perfectly, they are off about .035" on the intake cam and .025" on the exhaust. Is this enough to cause a problem with timing? I had the head milled to take out some imperfections on the sealing surface, the machinist said he only took about .005" off….maybe he took off more and is not telling me? I have verified TDC on the timing indicator with a dial indicator on the piston, so I know its spot on. I've rotated the motor several times by hand and everything else seems fine. I think if I jump the cams 1 tooth, it will be way off. Here are a couple of pics:

 

Anyone have input on the cam timing pics? Getting back on this project, now that summer is winding down!

 

You missed a step.

"Once the cam caps are fully tightened make any final adjustment necessary to align the cam timing dot with the fixed index mark on cap No 2. Spanner flats are provided on the cams for this purpose." Hope this helps.

Gary H.

 

I'm not following you? The pointer is at verified TDC, if I move the cams one tooth either way, they will be off even more.

 

Got a manual? Go back and read the section for assembling the head. Hope this helps.

Gary H.

 

I was at work on break when I posted this...had to get back. The above step should have been done prior to lifting the sprockets/chain onto the locating shoulders of the cams. Haynes Manual Pg. 108, paragraph 6. Hope this helps.

Gary H.

 

Head was assembled using the service manual. I wonder if its possible that the timing chain is stretched?

-Todd

 

It's possible. So your saying after you dropped the cams in and tightened the caps you used a wrench on each cam to align the dots with the cap arrows prior to locating the sprockets and chain? I'm asking because the dots are where they should be before doing this step.

Gary H.

 

Yep…after tensioning the chain and aligning to the TDC mark, the pics show were the cams ended up at.

 

Did you remove the slack in the chain via the exhaust sprocket prior to installing it? Did you rotate the engine to align the C on the timing plate with the pointer before you installed the tensioner?

Gary H.

 

If this ⬆ doesn't solve the problem we may need chacal, k-moe, hog, polock, toomany, bigshank, bigt or other members to tell whether the chain jumped a tooth. I'm thinking you would have visually seen it jump when you rotated the mill. I could be wrong.

Gary H.

 

I ran into the same issue tonight and thought of this thread since I ended up exactly where you are at. Are you pulling the slack on the exhaust side or intake side?

I mistakenly pulled the intake side when putting my head on but was successful by setting the intake cam as shown below with the expectation that the tensioner would make up the difference:



Installed the tensioner at the C mark and 2 revolutions later I had this:

 

I can't see the images.

Gary H.

 

Fixed.

 

if you rotate the engine a few times in the normal direction, then stop at tdc and the marks are the same as the pictures, your good to go. you should also check the pointer on the case to be sure "T" is really tdc. bring the piston almost to tdc then with a plastic straw feel when it dwells at the top and in normal rotation it should move down as the rotor passes the "T" mark. It could have gotten bumped it it's past life