Cam Timing Rabbit Hole. Seems I fell in.

I've done gap measurements using both methods on 550 motors, and the results are not so far off as to be unusable. Nessism's predictions are probably about right. I would at least try to do one cam now if you have the shims for it and see how it turns out when you check the gaps again. You will just have a new starting point than what you had, and there is at least a chance you won't have to do it again.

A few tips, though, especially if you will have the cam caps going back on and off a few times.
Make sure the threaded holes for the cam cap bolts are absolutely clean without a lot of oil accumulated in them. Hydrostatic lock can easily strip the threads out without feeling anything.
Also get a good inch-pound torque wrench and use a setting about 5% less than recommended.
When installing the cams, I use a nut driver to have good feel. No ratchets for that, Turn each cap bolt a little at a time so the cam goes down evenly. If there is any binding at all, absolutely undo what you've done and start again from where it frees up. Find out why it's binding, if it binds again. The parts are machined such that if the cam gets cocked, it should completely bind up.

Using vice grips to clamp the cams down into the head is the way to go. No worry about stressing the cap threads that way. The following photo gives you an idea, only I recommend TWO pairs. One on each side of the cam chain.

Well, dang it. I guess it serves me right for trusting in a manual I thought was dicey to begin with...
So I'm going to reassemble the camshafts, noting loud's cautions for fastener bosses being clean and proper tooling and redo the measures.
I'm over the nervousness of the process and now it's just about the arithmetic being correct right?

I keep hearing my father's voice (in our garage when I was a kid) - "do it right or don't do it at all!" - you gotta hear that with a thick Scottish accent... and the hand upside the head occasionally... :laugh:

My dad was a bum but I had a grandpa like that. He had a Shop Smith and all the tools for the jobs at hand. When I went into carpentry my mentor hammered into my head, "the man with the tools gets the job." He was right.
Steve

Well, Like I said, doing it the Clymer way is not a deal breaker. I've done it that way in the past with successful results. But nobody wants to feel the hand upside the head.

Well, obviously, I'm one of the guys yielding the slapping hand. Sorry for the heavy handed approach. Of greatest concern would be any valve that measures near the lower limit. In those instances using the Clymer method will yield a measurement that may lead you to think the valve is in spec but it isn't.

Whew! I got let out of the cage yesterday for like...the whole day too. Uninterrupted bliss in the garage with my bike! After discovering that Clymer "manual" is really just a way to screw-up your bike and listening to the good folks here, I re-installed my original shims, lifters and camshafts and started back from square one but using the FSM method.
Not surprisingly, the valve clearance measures were all different from my originals as per the CryMore manual suggests. Thankfully, I had decided to order a whole shim kit and not just individual shims or I'd have been screwed.

So the process went so smoothly. I don't know why valve shim adjustment had always made me nervous. It's so straight forward once you've done it and I ended up doing THREE times yesterday. Once because CryMore. Twice because I'm a mathematical moron and flipped my shim measures (decreased the shim size instead of increase the shim size). Third time was the charm and I got every valve measure exactly in the middle of the range for intake or exhaust.

Since I had the valve cover on the garage floor for a week and had recently did some case buffing, I decided to buff-up the valve cover ends for some more shine:


Took the ol' bike out for a spin this afternoon after work and it really runs well now. I still have that bothersome idle even after a cleaning the carbs but once this engine is warmed up it pulls like a freight train downhill !

Sync the carbs yet?
Steve

I haven't yet done a carb sync as I don't have the sync tool for these carbs (I have one for automotive but not useful for these).

I have been toying with the idea of pulling the carbs out again and dismantling them entirely again. Last time (what day is this again? haha) I had them apart and found they were all clean. I could see light through every jet, emulsion tube et cetera, so I basically put them back together as was. So it's possible one or more of the components is actually worn or been modified. I just don't know.

I also thought about the typical carb mount leak / vacuum leak scenario but last time I had that happen to me (it was on a kz too) five or so years ago maybe? It never caused the idle to race but rather slowed to the point of stopping. I took this to mean, the carbs sucked more air than the fuel needed and died. So I hand cut gaskets to match/fit between the mounts and the cylinder head and voila the bike ran great. Additionally, that problem seemed to show up when the engine warmed-up, like the gap somehow got bigger when warm vs when cold. That kz would start like watch every time but then when out on the road it would become unstable...

So carbs will no doubt come back out of this one and I'll replace everything the kits supply whether it appears to be needed or not. I'll also do the gasket thing on the mounts since it's cheap, easy and kinda' reassuring to know they aren't the culprit.

Otherwise, I did adjust the air/mix screws again this evening before the ride. I read here, that these carbs tend to run rich and I could certainly smell the fuel when I test ran it late last night after I got it back together. So now they're set at 1-1/8 open from seat. If it's possible, I still think the exhaust is rich smelling even at this setting.
Other than this air mix screw, what else can be adjusted that would effect idle? I set the idle screw to about 1100 rpm on the tach and I know that the adjuster on the left-end of the carbs opens/closes the choke plate in advance of the throttle but not certain how or if that would effect the idle since this happens when choke is off (engine warmed up and been running for over an hour).

Do yourself a favor and get some holders. End of problem for years. Yeah it can seem rich out of sync. Bench sync will get them runnable but then you need to dial them in.
Steve
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