so i am doing the CCT change to a manual one (APE) and i was reading where they say to put it dead center or line up the cam somethign like that dont have the instructions right in front of me.....But do i need to do that or can i just take off the crapp honda one and slap in the manual one?

 

i would do it, if the lobe is on a valve and its tweaking it right it may jump a link, i could swear i looked at my kawasaki's chain funny and it jumped with the tensioner off.
but you will probably be allright, i would say they are covering their butts by having you do that.

 

when I installed my OEM CCT I didn't do anything with lining up the cam shaft or anything

 

Same here, i did nothing else. Just replaced it.

 

Yup, all I did was replace mine. I plan on having the valves checked at some point somewhat soon probably. I'm just going to tell the mechanic while he's in there what I did and if he wouldn't mind checking the timing chain slack. The bike has ran fine since I swapped to the APE one and no more noise so I'm thinking it's probably ok.