honda305.com Forum

yes they go on tight. I assume you don't have the chain tensioner installed, or the valve adjuster screws. so get it hooked up, spin the crank over a few times to check yourself, tension the chain, adjust the valves, check everything again and you are good to go.
Good luck
Randy

rrietman wrote:yes they go on tight. I assume you don't have the chain tensioner installed, or the valve adjuster screws. so get it hooked up, spin the crank over a few times to check yourself, tension the chain, adjust the valves, check everything again and you are good to go.
Good luck
Randy

Hi, Randy! You assume correctly, the chain tensioner is sitting in a box, it's not on the barrel. I haven't checked the adjuster screws. The head was just refurbished by LM, and I left things the way I received it. I expect the chain to be tight, but I also think it's not routed quite right or it's slightly bunched up, as in around the guide roller. I also have to "skip" it on a few teeth on the crank so that the master link is at the top center of the cam; it's not, right now. All of this I will do tomorrow.

Thanks for the kind words, and the vote of confidence!

Block up the engine so the cylinders are vertical.
This will help with getting the chain on the lower sprocket easier.
Put nuts on the 2 studs under the spark plugs and tighten them.
This will help the gasket to compress and give a small amount of slack to the chain. ......lm

sarals wrote:

rrietman wrote:yes they go on tight. I assume you don't have the chain tensioner installed, or the valve adjuster screws. so get it hooked up, spin the crank over a few times to check yourself, tension the chain, adjust the valves, check everything again and you are good to go.
Good luck
Randy

Hi, Randy! You assume correctly, the chain tensioner is sitting in a box, it's not on the barrel. I haven't checked the adjuster screws. The head was just refurbished by LM, and I left things the way I received it. I expect the chain to be tight, but I also think it's not routed quite right or it's slightly bunched up, as in around the guide roller. I also have to "skip" it on a few teeth on the crank so that the master link is at the top center of the cam; it's not, right now. All of this I will do tomorrow.

Thanks for the kind words, and the vote of confidence!

Ed, there you are thinking again....

Thank you, I will do that. It's getting tiring flipping that heavy engine up on it's rear mounts to futz with that chain. I just know, the way my luck has been running, that the thing will fall off of the counter. I need that to happen.

Okay, I'll go to spin class, do some yoga, get my mind relaxed, and then go out to the garage and try again.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

LOUD MOUSE wrote:Block up the engine so the cylinders are vertical.
This will help with getting the chain on the lower sprocket easier.
Put nuts on the 2 studs under the spark plugs and tighten them.
This will help the gasket to compress and give a small amount of slack to the chain. ......lm

sarals wrote:

rrietman wrote:yes they go on tight. I assume you don't have the chain tensioner installed, or the valve adjuster screws. so get it hooked up, spin the crank over a few times to check yourself, tension the chain, adjust the valves, check everything again and you are good to go.
Good luck
Randy

Hi, Randy! You assume correctly, the chain tensioner is sitting in a box, it's not on the barrel. I haven't checked the adjuster screws. The head was just refurbished by LM, and I left things the way I received it. I expect the chain to be tight, but I also think it's not routed quite right or it's slightly bunched up, as in around the guide roller. I also have to "skip" it on a few teeth on the crank so that the master link is at the top center of the cam; it's not, right now. All of this I will do tomorrow.

Thanks for the kind words, and the vote of confidence!

I had a "day of interruption", but I was able to spend some "quality time" with the engine yesterday afternoon. The chain is installed, connected. I installed the master link directly over the cam timing mark. Now, here's the odd part - when I rotated the engine through after getting the chain sorted, the master link ended up in a different place. One more revolution, and it had advanced even further - about a tooth per revolution. The timing marks still line up. And, when the crank gets to TDC, the barrel wants to lift up from the case ever so slightly and there is a metallic "tink" each time it does it. That cam chain moving and that noise don't seem right to me....





Crank and cam timing marks lining up.



Master link clip in place - direction of rotation is to the left.

You did good.
Now you can install all the other parts and set the valve clearance.
The link location changes because the 2 sprockets are not the same size/number of teeth. .......lm

sarals wrote:I had a "day of interruption", but I was able to spend some "quality time" with the engine yesterday afternoon. The chain is installed, connected. I installed the master link directly over the cam timing mark. Now, here's the odd part - when I rotated the engine through after getting the chain sorted, the master link ended up in a different place. One more revolution, and it had advanced even further - about a tooth per revolution. The timing marks still line up. And, when the crank gets to TDC, the barrel wants to lift up from the case ever so slightly and there is a metallic "tink" each time it does it. That cam chain moving and that noise don't seem right to me....





Crank and cam timing marks lining up.



Master link clip in place - direction of rotation is to the left.

Okay, Ed! I know the sprockets are different sizes (the cam turns at half the crank RPM), but after all of these years it never occurred to me that the chain would advance teeth per revolution. It makes sense, I guess!

Question - as the crank goes over TDC should there be resistance and that metallic "tink"? I assume that the noise will disappear after the head is torqued down?

Thank you, thank you!