Hurricane Rider...

Why do you think its the cam bearings? Have you had this problem before?

I didnt look real close at the caps when I pulled them the first time. I just pulled the caps off and they are scored. Not just one, but all 3 that I have pulled. I would say they have about a 32 RMS.I would expect to see between a 16 and an 8 RMS. Do you think this is from the head gasket going and the bike overheating real bad? Or do you think this could be an assembly error? The last time it overheated, it didnt sound good. If this is an assmebly error, its an expensive one.

I already have so much money invested into this thing I have to fix it. I knew I was taking a chance purchasing a used bike with this many miles and this old. I was looking to spend between $2000-$3000 for a bike to get me to and from work. By the time its all said and done I will probably have about $3000-$4000 invested into this thing and a lot of time. The good thing is, for that price I will have an almost new bike.

If I had have purchased a newer bike for $3000 I still may be doing the same thing right now. Imay never purchase a used bike again. Was planning on buying a new one next year but now may not if I have to sink a lot of money off into this one.

If I have to replace the head with a new head, I'm going to pull the motor out of the bike and rebuild the whole thing.

At least its the first year the CBRs came out. Its a collectors item if I get it runningor a shot up boat anchor if I dont.

 

Gearloose...

Thanks. Along with adjusting the valve clearance, I'm going to try reassembling it with some better assembly grease and hope the tapping/knocking goes away. Should know here in a few hours unless I get frustrated with this thing and put it off until this weekend. Been sick the last few days so havent been to work. Will be going back tomorrow.

 

servicehonda.com

New cams: about $400 for both

New Head and caps assembly: $875

 

it may just be time to cut your losses and find another bike. Personally, when I've sunk more money into a bike in repairs than I have to purchase it, and this is for ANY vehicle, that vehicle is then parked and either sold or parted out and replaced.

this is just me though.

 

This is why I stopped buying used cars. Got tired of working on them.

Have you burned the cam bearings before?

 

I doubt that assembly grease will make any difference other than for the first couple of engine turns while engine oil gets up to pressure. Instead I'd get the manual and check all possibilities by troubleshooting from first principles. Also check that you have the caps in the right place (not transposed), and cam chain is not so loose that it causes problems with timing for example.

May be a very simple & cheap-to-fix cause, just needing thought to track it down.

 

this is very true. the cam caps are VERY specific, since cam cap A only matches the mating surface on the head marked A.

the bearing surfaces on these are line bored, and basically non interchangable with other caps, or locations on the head. check this. I wasnt even thinking about that until it was mentioned.

 

I made sure I put the caps back on correct.

I have a video clip of what's happening. I used the wifes cell phone. It's a .3gp file. The file size is 292 KB. Nero opens it. How would I go about loading it or would I need to email it?

It's like something is binding up and then lets loose and pops. It was doing this when I was setting the timing during assembly but it wasn't popping. I didn't think much about it. Just thought it was due to the slop in the chain. So it was doing it before I ever started it.

From what Im understanding here, the crank will make 2 full 360 degrotations to the cams 1 full 360 deg rotation. The chain binds up and pops every 180 deg CRANK rotation. So every 90 deg CAM rotation. I have the CCT backed all the way out. So the chain has full slop in it.

When I went to turn it after I torqued the cams back down, I couldn't get it to turn by hand. Had to bump the starter. After that it would turn easy by hand.

It's almost like valves are sticking but I can't imagine that many valves sticking.

I still haven't checked the valve clearance yet. Had to put the cam caps back on and make sure the timing was still good. Im going to go check the clearance while waiting for reply on this post.

 

I just finished checking the clearances. I had 3 valves that were about .001" out and one exhaust valve that was about .009" out. Still didnt fix the problem.

It may be coming from the bottom end. May have a rod bearing going. If so, that's cheaper than cam bearings as long as I didn't trash the crank.

I tried to look down into the spark plug holes. Didnt see any signs of valves hitting. I also couldnt see much of the piston. I pulled the exhaust back off (I reused the old exhaust gaskets just in case) and it didn’t look like any of the exhaust valves were sticking.

The pop is consistant. Pops twice on every 360 deg rotation of the CRANK. Once just before TDC and once just before BDC.

I was able to set up a YouTube video. Heres the link…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVE6Ago3DWw

Never made a YouTube post before. Hope it works.

The video quality is bad. It's from a cell phone. My wife is turning the crank while I videoed it.

I’m stuck. I don’t know what else it could be. I think I'm going to take a break from this thing for a week or two until I can find something out. I've been spending all my free time for the past few weeks working on this thing. Was hoping all I had to do was the head gasket.

I will pull the carbs off later to see if any of the intake valves are sticking.

 

I honestly dont know, to me, that doesnt quite sound like a bearing going bad, so I seriously doubt a lower end bearing of any sort.