Haven't done the cam swap...yet. Maybe a Sharpie permanent marker? I thought the cam wheel had markings on it...

 

Haven't done the cam swap...yet. Maybe a Sharpie permanent marker? I thought the cam wheel had markings on it...

I thought I might put a mark across the cam chain and cam wheel for my own reference since I've never replaced the cams in my Cross Country tour before.

 

There is no need to mark anything. As per the manual lock the cylinder at top dead center and install the cam wheel so the lines on it line up with the cylinder head. Simple, ALMOST foolproof.

 

From KevinX on another thread: "Lets not over complicate this. There are two holes below the lower timing gear, and a hole in the crank. When the rear is at TDC, and the cam gear indicator lines are parallell with the head. You stick an 8mm pin in the front lower hole. This locks the crank in postion, and eleminates any need to do any marking or other crazy sh%t. When you are done with the rear then you ratate the engine 770 degrees, and the front cam gear alingment marks will be lined up. Stick your pin in the rear hole to lock the crank in position. If you do not understand what I just typed. Then you might consider paying someone else to do this. It is considerable more dificult then installing a PCV, and screw ups WILL be expensive."

 

From KevinX on another thread: "Lets not over complicate this. There are two holes below the lower timing gear, and a hole in the crank. When the rear is at TDC, and the cam gear indicator lines are parallell with the head. You stick an 8mm pin in the front lower hole. This locks the crank in postion, and eleminates any need to do any marking or other crazy sh%t. When you are done with the rear then you ratate the engine 770 degrees, and the front cam gear alingment marks will be lined up. Stick your pin in the rear hole to lock the crank in position. If you do not understand what I just typed. Then you might consider paying someone else to do this. It is considerable more dificult then installing a PCV, and screw ups WILL be expensive."

AfterI read this ,I then remembered that I had forgotten this post that KevinX posted about this topic.

 

Could tip tie it so it don't slip down maybe,....I fitted XC cams overnight,
Was following some goose on YouTube who loved the sound of his own voice and I would up putting front cam in 180 out so invented a one cylinder Victory.
A call to Kevinx and his resultant email had me rectifying my stuff up the next day.
Vindex also pointed out it's better to follow the S&S tutorial rather than YouTube.
It's all a learning curve.
Once you've had Cams there's no going back!

 

Yup zip tie chain on gear & drop n galley

 

I use white paint pen to get gear completely out and out of the way.

 

Why must you take things out of your way, when you can take twice as long working around them??? :angel4:

 

use zip ties ...

take the rear bdc bolt out first, rotate rear to tdc .. put a zip tie on each side of the TDC bolt, then remove the cam chain tensioner, then take the tdc bolt out.

same thing for front cyl ... dont have to worry about skipping any teeth

 

use zip ties ...

take the rear bdc bolt out first, rotate rear to tdc .. put a zip tie on each side of the TDC bolt, then remove the cam chain tensioner, then take the tdc bolt out.

same thing for front cyl ... dont have to worry about skipping any teeth

Yup that's how I did it ...

There was one guy on the forum who rotated the cam 180° wrong, bike was running on 1 cylinder, hahaha but he figured it out