Camshaft Timing and TDC (ZR550)

I'm trying to reinstall and time my camshafts after installation of a Wiseco big bore kit, and I'm a little confused about something. I followed the FSM, step by step which means one of the very first things I did was set the timing mark to pistons 1 and 4 TDC. As the exhaust camshaft went in, I pulled the cam chain tight with my hand, and made sure to place the EX mark as close to level with the cylinder head upper surface. Also made sure the EX line was between outer plates on the chain, and not mid-plate (photos of everything below). I torqued the camshaft caps, and installed the inlet camshaft. I went ahead and counted to pins 43 and 44 ahead of time, and marked them with a red Sharpie, so that I could line up the Z/5 mark on the inlet shaft right away. Now I've got the camshaft caps for that torqued as well, and am installing the cam chain tensioner (I have a manual one).

Instructions for the cam chain tensioner say to rotate the crank forward, but as I did that it seems like it pulled the cam chain taught, and took up some slack. So I've got the EX and Z/5 marks still right where they should be, with the pins counted and marked, but the #1 timing mark is now forward of the reference timing mark. Is this normal? Of did I not pull the front of the chain taught enough when I placed it on the EX timing mark at the beginning? Are all three reference points supposed to line up simultaneously? It seems like in order to do that I would have had to have the #1TDC mark slightly behind the timing reference mark, so that as the crank rotates forward and pulls the slack out of the chain, the marks line up. 

 

Whelp, I guess I got ahead of myself posting that, because I took the cams back out and tried it again, and now all three reference marks line up. I'm really not sure what happened the first time, I didn't do anything different. Just goes to show that if something seems off, it's best to take a few steps back and try again. 

Stereordinary wrote:

Whelp, I guess I got ahead of myself posting that, because I took the cams back out and tried it again, and now all three reference marks line up. I'm really not sure what happened the first time, I didn't do anything different. Just goes to show that if something seems off, it's best to take a few steps back and try again. 
 

Hi I am restoring basically the same bike, and as you I found myself scratching my head with the cam shaft installation and rotor that is misaligned. I have disassembled everything and reinstalled everything back again some 10 times now, but the T mark is always misaligned. I cannot get it to be properly aligned!

Here's the thread (on another forum, if this is not allowed please mods remove the link):
www.kawasakimotorcycle.org/threads/1991-...=oldest#post-2435604

Camshafts are indeed properly aligned, though. Here a small video I made:

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GARACS
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Dave
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Sorry for interupting  this thread but with the site in flux I'm having to get  inventive