Part 3
- Check valve clearances. Remember that the decompressors will throw off the readings on the adjacent exhaust valves. Simply rotate the decompressors so that they do not press down on the bucket, then take your reading.
- If you're out of tolerance the easiest thing to do (if you don't want your bike sidelined waiting for shipping) is to buy a shim kit from Hot Cams ahead of time, although most of the sizes you'll never use.
- I like this calculator for determining shim sizes, but since you'll want to work from the right side of the bike for both inlet and exhaust cams, I find the numbering going from left to right backwards for the piston order and it's easy to make mistakes. I disregard his numbers and just fill the blanks in the same order I see the cams- so from left to right is 6,5,4,3,2,1. This will make sense when it's in front of you. Double/triple check your measurements and calculations- it's very easy to make a mistake. Basically if the clearance is too tight, for example, you want to go with a smaller shim to make the gap larger.
- Remove the camshafts in order to replace the shims.
This video shows the procedure for replacing the shims and setting the camshaft timing.
See, it all just takes 3 minutes, five seconds to do....
After that you're most of the way home.
- Reinstall the cam cover and new spark plugs. More on that here...
Before attempting to install the cover be sure to slide up and spin this aggravating bracket out of the way...
- Replace the clutch cover and reinstall the clutch slave unit.
- Replace the fluid in the clutch. Easy to do, but do not let the level fall below the reservoir or you'll run into the problems that I did- not so bad once you know the fix. If your mind wanders too, the solution is described in my nightmare post here.
- Install the radiator and overflow jug. This will be fairly easy if your hands are the size of a twelve-year old Thai girl. Follow the order of things in the manual- it makes a difference.
- If your throttle bodies are out of sync reinstall the gas tank, install the fuel pump fuse, and connect the battery. The blank for adjusting the throttle bodies is visible with the plenum off. I believe it is a 30 torx security head. Remove it, connect TuneECU and fire up the bike. The adjuster is a small hex located three or more inches deep inside the hole where the blank was. One of those folding tools with the various sizes is long enough to reach.
- Install new air filter
- Reinstall the plenum (you'll need to remove the tank and disconnect the battery again if you had to adjust your throttle bodies).
- Install new fuel filter. More on that here...
- Reinstall the gas tank (what a PIA compared to the older Rockets, along with the entire valve adjustment process) and instrument panel
- Connect the battery
- Go riding......