Cam timing woes. Worst weekend in a long time.

god I sound like nads when I drink

They changed the spec in the mid/late 70's for the 1000's and the factory manual recommends applying that retrospectively to 900's too as they are all basically the same engine.
I have five zeds ranging from std to turbo'd and run all close to the upper .15mm if possible (shim range permitting) and once they dip below around .9mm I pull the heads and do what's needed to re-gain clearance but that takes many many 1000's of miles.
They will run happily at those higher .20mm race specs , they will run a little noisier but I find a loud pipe cures that

Well this is good to know- thanks. I think most of my shims are around the 245 area, and I only have a few thinner than that... Might be time to build up the shim collection! Might be time to get a second job too! :laugh:

I will trade shims as long as you pay postage. I have a few

god I sound like nads when I drink

Whaddya doing drinking during the day on a Monday, anyways?

Yeah, I'm going to be much more careful about those shims from now on. Speaking of drinking, little occurences like this are the reason I DON'T drink when I work on the bike :laugh: Easy enough to F things up under normal circumstances!

east coast I start at 5 am

I appreciate the offer! However, I first need to buy a good range of them to even have ones to trade. I only own a few spare shims from 230-250. That's all that this bike has in it... a pretty close group!

just let me know what you need and send 1 for each i send plus shipping. I have 80 or more

Right on- Thanks!

It sounds like madmatt needs to buy the tools needed to accuratly measure and then set his cam timing. A degree wheel, piston stop, dial indicator & mount and a pair of adjustable sprockets and you will be good to go. There are lots on-line how to's to help you understand it. Good luck.

I just got in from the garage. Reset the cams, and this time I installed the OEM idler & blocks. The outcome was exactly the same.

80B4- I've been thinking about getting those tools for a while, I think you are correct- it's time to do it. I'm not going to lie, the usage of the dial indicator, piston stop, and degree wheel may as well be nuclear physics to me right now.. but I'd like to learn!

So is this situation pretty normal, and something that many people overlook, OR is it pretty obvious that my cam chain is just quite stretched? All of my real-life experience setting up cams has been on engines with...one cam :laugh:

Is it possible I have just been driving it like this & didn't know it? (Like maybe when I assembled the engine, I got them to line up on assembly, and called it good before setting chain tension and rotating the crank.) Is this small of a timing difference really enough for most people to notice when the engine is running? Because it seemed to run very well to me.

Cam degreeing only sounds hard untill you do it one time. Ebay has all of the tools, they even have kits with all the tools and a how-to dvd. If I can do it, you can do it too!
Use the Liska parts, they are very good, make sure all of the other timing parts are good. Ask around about lobe center numbers for stock cams in a stock motor. Larry C. may help with that.
The only way to know if things are right is to do it yourself. So, good luck and get to work!

madmatt1 wrote: I
So is this situation pretty normal, and something that many people overlook, OR is it pretty obvious that my cam chain is just quite stretched? All of my real-life experience setting up cams has been on engines with...one cam :laugh:

Is it possible I have just been driving it like this & didn't know it? (Like maybe when I assembled the engine, I got them to line up on assembly, and called it good before setting chain tension and rotating the crank.) Is this small of a timing difference really enough for most people to notice when the engine is running? Because it seemed to run very well to me.

Seems like that's the only conclusion left in the realm of probability at this point......