Hi guys, I'm a new member here but have to admit I've gotten lots of useful information on this forum in the past so thank you.

So a couple of quick questions for those of you who have reinstalled camshafts. I'm currently doing a valve adjust where I needed to swap several shims on my 2000 F4. I know how to align cam lobes on #1 with crank at TDC... then need the ex / in timing marks lined up with the cylinder head. All good so far. Once you torque down the camshaft holder the cams are not very easy to move. On one hand this seems to make sense as the #2 intake valves and #3 exhaust valves seem like they are needing to open a little in this position and rotating by hand to compress the springs seems like it would be a little tough... that said I don't want to force anything here so my questions are:

(1) Is it normal the cam should be tough to move by hand here? or is something binding on me that I should be concerned about?

(2) Assuming it is expected what have people used to rotate the cam into exact position? It appears the cam setting with #1 lobs up and out is fine for cam holder install but the cams still need to rotate slightly to get cam sprockets to align exactly with the head.

Thanks in advance!

 

So I guess I just had to do this and it became more obvious. For anyone interested:

(1) Start with crankshaft at TDC on the timing marks.
(2) reinstall cams with No. 1 lobes facing diagonally up and out.
(3) Install camshaft holder plate and torque down.
(4) Install camshaft sprockets on the cam sprocket flanges with chain aligning the in / ex timing markings parallel to the head.

At this point the camshaft sprocket bolt holes don't exactly line up with threads on the camshafts but they are close. I was thinking I had to move the camshafts to align the bolt holes on the sprockets but much easier to turn the crank slightly to get these to line up. The cams stay stationary but turning crank moves the sprockets until aligned. Install a cam sprocket bolt with locking agent in each cam and then turn crank clockwise one turn to install remaining sprocket bolts.