Let me get this out of the way first so you can choose a whole bunch of ways.
1. Take a compression reading first. Why? Because you are at the point of removing the cams and you might as well keep going. If you know the compression is good, then all that is needed is a shim service. If you did not check compression, one cylinder is bad, your next step is to sync the cylinders and you now compensate a neighbor's throttle plate to balance the bad cylinder? The idle is slow to come down with a raised plate. Get it?
a. My time is shot = If I took a compression test first, I am now doing a job twice.
b. My engine has no pep = I wasted my time shimming cam, the tight valve did not change anything, I think I burned a valve and I could have caught that if I C'dup first.
c. My idle sucks I wonder why? Must be that tight valve that burned enough to lose percentage over the others.
2. To make things less complicated, pick a cylinder or think of a lawnmower engine. To find ANY compression stroke, watch the cam push the intake valve down and when it comes up, that piston is heading up. So when the in-cam is now closing the intake, this becomes the Compression Stroke. So the sequence goes:
a. I watch #1 intake cam push the valve down.
b. When the intake comes up I stop cranking.
c. I now look for 1-4 mark and set the crank to "#1 TDC Compression Stroke."
3. I have 3 types of valve adjustments that I can walk up to any bike, be it push rod, tappet screw, or shim style and apply said methods. I can say it another way and that is, I can walk up to any cylinder and adjust the in-ex valves 3 ways.
a. Flat Rate: This is how you adjust the valves with a multi-cylinder like the 14, the 600, etc. Make is simple so we work with 2 valves only. 4 cylinders times 2 valves = 8 valves to adjust. To find flat rate, we watch '#1TDComp' and set it to 1-4. We now can find 8 shims with clearance, and 8 we can't put a feeler gauge in. To adjust the other 8 shims, we simply watch the 1-4 marks, no valves to watch, but one full 360 degree turn back to 1-4, we now have #4 at TDC Compression. We just mirrored the cams to the other side. So now we spent hardly any time cranking the engine 4 times finding TDC for every cylinder.
b. Slow Rate: This is where you will find TDComp for every cylinder by following the intake's movement of that cylinder and you now adjust the group of valves one time. As long as you write down each cylinder you chased watching the intake, the fire sequence is 1-2-4-3, so the first cylinder you pick you know know which cylinder is next to be at TDComp.
c. Race Rate: This is how the race car cams are adjusted. This is better known more by the letters, 'EOIC.' (Ex + Open = Stop!) and (In + Close = Stop!) The H-D's use this method, or say push rod style. When you set the flat rate, some of these valves are at this [eoic] position. So think foot. Rock your toes like a ballet dancer and you are at the nose of the cam at full valve opening. If you could find the lowest point of your heel and you can balance off that perfect 90 degree pivot, that is where the other valve sits or why that is the race position. Make sense the racer wants to find the lowest point between gaps?
So if you are at peak opening, you want to stop right there, adjust the heel side of the other valve. So the mantra to remember race positions, the memory goes, "As-Soon-As-The-E-Opens-EYE STOP!" Next battle shim of the republic is, "As-Soon-As-I-See-The-Intake begin to Close-I Stop Turning Crank." So if I see the ex-pushrod just begin to open, I know I am at the heel of the intake cam. I now adjust my intake's push rod on my lawnmower... We make it easy.
4. Cam Timing: As far as I can tell, the in-line sequence has yet to be changed so that means to set the cam timing, #1TDComp is where the cam lobes are lined up at the 1-4 mark. Something to take into consideration is tooth to chain wear. And that goes something like this.
a. I want to keep the same wear pattern as mentioned so I mark the link and cam tooth. This keeps the engine quiet as if never tampered with so the pattern, nor is it making new noise bedding in new high spots and the like.
b. The first reason I mark the (1)chain to crank tooth, (2)cam tooth to chain link and (3) the triangle at the other cam tooth to link, is to make sure all 3 points line up again, if say the chain drops off the crank.
c. The second reason is how fast you can roll the cams back into position without having a tooth off or the chain is taught because of that one off link you are struggling with. Line up your magic marker marks, fingernail polish, whatever, then roll the cam in the line bore. Makes for fast alignment and no mistakes.
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