Cylinder Head Removal - first time and could use some guidance

Here is what I did on my KZ900. Would be a bit different for yours, but same idea. Basically, precautions to not cause any damage or drop things (debris, etc) inside the engine. Multi part videos.

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Thanks for the responses. Looks like I need to find a gasket AND a couple O rings, unless those can be reused for some reason. Seems somewhat straightforward; just hate the idea that there's this much required to change out what really ends up being 1 bad valve seal...maybe I'm just lazy.

Not everyone agrees on this part, but if pulling the head I'd also remove the cylinder.  A base gasket is less than $20 so why temp fate?  This will allow you to decarbon the pistons properly and judge cylinder wear by measuring the parts.  Oh, and ONLY use OEM Kawasaki gaskets.  Aftermarket gaskets are a crap shoot at best.  It's not worth the risk in my opinion.  

Ok I’m finally getting some time to work on this again. I’m stupid or something but I’m really struggling getting the head back due to these stupid little rubber dampers on the tensioner guide sprocket. They seem too big for the space I’ve got to work with! Anyone struggle with getting the head to sit down on the block and not get stuck on these rubber dampers??

aaaand I’ve now dropped two of these rubber dampers into the engine. About to sell this bike 

The little rubber things should be glued to the flats on either side of the sprocket axle.  That way they don't come off.  If you lost a couple in the engine you can probably fish them out by dropping your oil pan.  You can probably leave them there without any problems if you have some spares, but I would take the time to pull them out.

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aaaand I’ve now dropped two of these rubber dampers into the engine. About to sell this bike 

someone recently mentioned that those little dampers have a bit of steel under the rubber, so you may be able to fish then out with a magnet on a stick.  I haven't tried it myself.

So I found them at the bottom of the oil pan but the oil pan would not come off. So I bought more new ones. I glued them in and just finished installing the cylinder head. Now I’ve got more issues. These stupid little things are killing me. Any advice here would be hugely appreciated. 

I placed the cylinder head on the studs and checked to see if the rear chain guide sprocket spun freely and it did. I just finished tightening down all the caps and to verify everything was good I reached in and tried to spin the sprocket again. This time it won’t spin. I can move it a cm if I really force it but there’s tons of resistance. I loosened the four center caps and it freed it up a little but there’s still quite a bit of resistance. I don’t know why and I don’t know what to do. My guess is the rubber dampers were squished against the sprocket after torquing everything down and preventing it from spinning. The stupid thing is that I actually cut the dampers down a little so they were flush with the sides and yet they’re still causing problems. Anyone have any thoughts on what I’m doing wrong here? 

Here’s a photo of the sprocket while the head is torqued. You can see the rubber dampers being squeezed out.  

 

It looks like the rubber dampers are squished to much and press against the cam chain idler. There two diffrent sizes of rubber damper!

the small rubber damper

 

the big rubber damper

 

I'm going on memory here, although I just did this job a couple of weeks ago to my 78 650.  I think the sprocket rollers (#7 & 8 in the diagram) are different.  One goes in the front and the other in the back.  Perhaps you have them switched?

So the #9 dampers are what I bought and installed. I even trimmed them so they’d fit better. Maybe I need to trim further?? Maybe the eyeball test is failing me here but #9 looks bigger than #12

You need the smaller ones.  They should say "Up" on one side.