[Seft]

Dude...oil is the lifeblood of any engine, but even more so in an air/oil cooled engine. I don't think you'd need to spend fiddy squids on changing oil. You need a filter and any motor oil that meets spec. It does NOT have to be motorcycle specific oil...

Hmmm, figured that'd be the case, that's interesting what you say about not needing bike specific oil though. I'd just presumed as it existied that's what I'd need. In this kind of engine is there notable difference between branded expensive oil and generic ones then or is that just marketting?

[RobertTravis]

Manufacturer branded oil say like YamaLube is usually a blend of conventional and synthetic. You can run any brand blend or straight conventional or synthetic as long as it doesn't contain friction modifiers in it that will make your clutch slip...I don't have the specs to avoid but Google does...

This is just an example: http://www.ebay.com/gds/Top-10-Bike-...5161050/g.html

[92xjunker]

Save yourself the headache, make sure it is MOTOR CYCLE oil, wet clutches will not function with car oil. Diesel engine oil will also work, there are no friction additives in diesel oils. Lots of members use it. Spec SF or SG OIL...

[katanarider]

It does NOT have to be motorcycle specific oil...

I'd make sure the back of the bottle says "meets JASO requirements".
Thats Japenese ....something ....something. I've always heard car oil will strip your clutches. I use Shell Rotella Triple Protection 15w-40, its JASO qualified. Things may be different in the UK

[Seft]

I'd make sure the back of the bottle says "meets JASO requirements".
Thats Japenese ....something ....something. I've always heard car oil will strip your clutches. I use Shell Rotella Triple Protection 15w-40, its JASO qualified. Things may be different in the UK

Spec for mine says to use 10W 40, got one that's JASA compliant too and as there seems to be some debate on whether or not I should use a motorbike specific one I went for one that was to be on the safe side. Just didn't get the crazy expensive one I used last time!

[RobertTravis]

I've always heard car oil will strip your clutches. I use Shell Rotella Triple Protection 15w-40, its JASO qualified. Things may be different in the UK

That's only if it has friction modifiers in it because it will make the clutch slip.

[Seft]

That's only if it has friction modifiers in it because it will make the clutch slip.

Hard to tell from most of the descriptions on web sites which do or don't have modifiers in them, that aside there doesn't seem to be much price difference with motorbike specific oils in the UK. Are absense of friction modifiers generally the only difference then between car/bike oils?

[Seft]

So, valve clearances... The manual says to turn the engine until the T aligns with the sensor initially so the notches on the cam shafts face away from each other AND the centre of the notches in the shafts align with the mating surface on the cylinder head. When I line up the T mark and sensor the notches are not perfectly aligned. So, which do I line up to set the clearances or what can I adjust to get the notches and T mark/sensor all perfectly aligned please?

[RobertTravis]

Did you try rotating the engine another couple of revolutions?

[Seft]

Did you try rotating the engine another couple of revolutions?

Yeah just comes back to the same point every two full turns, the centre of the notches are about 2 mm further round when the mark near the T is pointing at the centre of the sensor

[RobertTravis]

Do you know if the cams were ever removed before? What about aligning the cam marks so they are right can that be done?

I am wondering if you might have an ignition advancer that throws the mark off a few degrees.

[Seft]

Do you know if the cams were ever removed before? What about aligning the cam marks so they are right can that be done?

I am wondering if you might have an ignition advancer that throws the mark off a few degrees.

Not to my knowledge. If I align the notches on the end of the cams dead centre to the cylinder head mating surface then the TDC marker is not at the right spot on the sensor. It does look like if I was to turn each cam in by one chain link it's be spot on but loathed to do that if I don't absolutely need to.

I don't know what an ingition advancer is or how I'd know if there is is one, will do some research...

The bike ran fine prior to cylinder 3 not firing properly before I started all this and I'm presuming if this was wrong it'd be obvious when the engine was running? Jist no way to know whether clearances should be set with the sensor mark set right or the cam shaft notches set right 😐

[Seft]

The ignition advancer looks like the stock part as per the manual. Get the feeling I'm gonna need to dismantle more things and to re align the cam shafts. The ignition advancer bit (assuming stick part is is called that too!) will only mount in one place so I can't adjust it to be in the right place when the cam shafts are aligned.

[Kreylyn]

Not to my knowledge. If I align the notches on the end of the cams dead centre to the cylinder head mating surface then the TDC marker is not at the right spot on the sensor. It does look like if I was to turn each cam in by one chain link it's be spot on but loathed to do that if I don't absolutely need to.

I don't know what an ingition advancer is or how I'd know if there is is one, will do some research...

The bike ran fine prior to cylinder 3 not firing properly before I started all this and I'm presuming if this was wrong it'd be obvious when the engine was running? Jist no way to know whether clearances should be set with the sensor mark set right or the cam shaft notches set right 😐

An ignition advancer is a replacement part that changes the timing of the electronic portion of the pickup for the bike. It generally advances it by around 4 or 5 degrees to around 13 total. The cold weather bikes like CAN models tend to already have this setting OEM.

Pic of the OEM vs a brand of aftermarket advancer. OEM is Denso branded.



Pic source is from an advance install walk thru.

I don't know off hand if changing the advance would cause the issue, but this way you can at least confirm if it's OEM or not.

Krey

The ignition advancer looks like the stock part as per the manual. Get the feeling I'm gonna need to dismantle more things and to re align the cam shafts. The ignition advancer bit (assuming stick part is is called that too!) will only mount in one place so I can't adjust it to be in the right place when the cam shafts are aligned.

Have you counted the cam chain pins to verify the camps are positioned correctly in relation to the chain?

Krey

[Seft]

The one on the bike doesn't look like either you posted but is denso branded and as I might have written looks the same as the one in the manual so pretty sure its stock. I've not counted cam chain pins, will check in the manual to see what these should be. If this is set up wrongly what would happen when running, how would I know if it's a problem?