Huh? Changed shims now all buckets same height??

Hey all,

Silly problem here.. but I just changed my shims to the appropriate size (see my previous thread), and now all the buckets are the same height-- none of them are depressed. That is, when I go to put the exhaust cam back in, one of the lobes facing down (3) is simply hitting the bucket so the camshaft won't lay properly. I have the timing mark at T, for TDC, and the exhaust cam with the T mark lined up with the edge of the valve cover. None of the buckets are depressed, they are all extended out at the same height.

I'm following this guide for putting the cams back in:

What's going on here??

Thanks,
-Stephen

once u have the cam in place .....install cam caps and torque them down..
if u look at the cam lobes....none are touching (pressing) the bucket(s). Lobes only press on buckets when you rotate the cams.

Yea, it gets a little hit or miss to install the cams correctly timed. Of course the cams will not lay flat, and all the buckets are fully extended due to valve spring pressure. You lay your cams in and look at the marks and more or less imagine by best guess where they will line up when the cam caps are installed and torqued down. Many times the cams may be off by a tooth or two, and if that happens, unbolt and adjust accordingly. There is no reason to remove cams to the point that retiming is necessary on a KZ650. I've posted here a few times how to swap shims without altering timing and need to even look at the marks. If anyone cares or wants the procedure repeated, let me know. It was even a kawasaki tech topic on the microfiche cards clear back in 1977, but few ever followed the procedure.

Perfect!! I just didn't know if it would be improper to tighten down the caps if the camshaft was at an angle.

All is well now. Triple check the magical number 36 links, and torquing caps now!

Thanks for the help guys.

- Stephen