Head removal

I have a leaky head gasket that has now gotten worse. Time to replace. I know for a fact that it is NOT the valve cover gasket. This gasket is new from doing valve clearance check. The leak is front between cylinders 1 and 2. Just a 5 mile trip will leave about 4 spots on garage floor the size of a quarter. So any way i have the carbs off, valve cover off, exhaust off, head is loose. This is where i am at. I did not touch cams yet. I do have a manual but still not to clear. Can i remove one cam or need both? Could chain just be taken apart at the joining link and put back together? I know this would require a tool. Not sure what all should be marked and where at before i disassemble. I do plan on taking many pics. I will line up TDC with mark. I have torque wrenches for re-assembly. This bike runs like new and i want to keep it this way. Any help would be appreciated. Or a link. I could not find too much that helped.
Dave

 

A few tips from when I removed the head on my bike:

Both cams need to come off, you unbolt the sprockets from the cams and slide them over, and that gives the necessary clearance with the chain to remove the cams. You'll need to remove the cam chain tensioner (get a new gasket for it also).

Be sure to rotate the cams to where you can reach the two bolts on each sprocket. I think the position the manual says to rotate it to makes one of the bolts inaccessible. Once you remove a sprocket, you can't turn the engine over without risking a bent valve!

Try to loosen the cam bolts evenly, in a diagonal pattern sort-of similar to the head bolts. My Haynes manual says to do a half a turn or so then loosen another. The valve springs are still exerting upward pressure on one of the cam lobes, so it's important to loosen the bolts evenly.

You shouldn't need to break the chain (unless you want to replace it), just make sure you don't drop it into the engine. Tie a string to the chain and use that to hold the chain up.

Other than that, try to keep any crud from dropping into the cylinders when you pull the head off.

 

Thank you much. That helps a ton

 

Do you need to break the cam chain to get the block off?

I'm taking my head to a machine shop and thinking it might be good to pull the block and pistons. This is my on Maxim-X. Would the shop need more than that (i.e. crankcase/crankshaft etc?)

The manual gets into all kinds of crazy tear-down assuming a complete rebuild, but I'm only interested in solving a compression problem.

Chaz

 

No.
You don't break the Chain.

You remove the Sprockets.
Take the Chain off from the Sprockets.
Remove the Cams.
Tie a long Safety Line to the Chain.
While the Head is being removed, ... let the Chain fall-down into the center of the Engine.
While the Head is being lifted-off, ... grab the Safety Line so that the Chain can be pulled-back up ... once the Head is free and you can reach the Safety Line.