the rocket is almost running again....sort of

Had a play with the vacuum lines today and still no joy.
I took the valve cover off and went to remove the access port on the front of the engine but it had been rounded off. So off came the radiator and front engine cover again, at least it goes a lot quicker the second time round.

This time I positioned a camera exactly in line with the crank gear and markings and took photos, with the front wheel still on its impossible to see both of the dots at the same time even then they end up being viewed from an angle.
It looks like I was off by a tooth the photos below show how I had the timing set.


The upper cam gears with the bottom gear in the alignment shown above.
The upper gear positions with the crank gear aligned according to both marks



So I started over with the timing, this took a lot of messing about as at the first attempt the upper cam gears were aligned using the tool but the chain wouldnt sit properly over them, once the tensioner was refitted and the engine turned over by hand the chain would develop a slack spot between the cams and the exhaust cam would try and jump a tooth.

Second attempt there was some slack in the non tensioner side, once the tensioner was done up and engine turned over the marks would be out of alignment again. I think this is what happened when I first put it back together.

Third attempt seemed to do the trick, cams aligned nicely relative to each other, no slack on the non tensioner side of the chain or between the cams, chain running nicely and after turning the engine over 4 times and checking again everything still seemed to be where it should be. So of course I turned the engine over another 12 times checking every 4 rotations. Below are pics of where things ended up.


Do ya reckon it looks good? If so I can get it reassembled again tomorrow if I have time.

Your first picture looked fine to me. The timing marks are usually somewhat after TDC as the timing gets later as the chain stretches. If you jumped it even one tooth you would be way to the advance side of the marks. My guess is you could put the crank where it was in the first picture and still get the cam holder tool in. Just my .5 cents worth.

+1 on the first set of pics look ok, if the crank dot was back at the mark then the exhaust cam gear mark would be up a little higher than in the pic, probably level with the edge, and the intake gear mark would be down a little lower than in that same pic - in the end, being pretty much bang on.

What MAP numbers did you get across the 3 throttles?

Looks a lot better now.

R-III-R Turbo said:

+1 on the first set of pics look ok, if the crank dot was back at the mark then the exhaust cam gear mark would be up a little higher than in the pic, probably level with the edge, and the intake gear mark would be down a little lower than in that same pic - in the end, being pretty much bang on.

What MAP numbers did you get across the 3 throttles?

Click to expand...

Couldnt get tuneecu to connect today so was unable to get any sensor readings. I took the battery out of my car (its nearly new as I replaced it last month) and charged it up. Will put that on the bike tomorrow and see if I can get tuneecu to connect. I was getting as far as the bar on the bottom right of tuneecu screen going from to red to flickering orange and giving me the battery voltage (12.2v) but was unable to get it to turn green and complete the connection.

I did take a look at the hoses to the map sensor, they are all pushed fully home on the throttle bodies and at the other end and dont appear split or damaged. Think I will take them off though so they can be examined more closely.

I am going to pull the crank position sensor tomorrow and give it a clean. Because the bike had been sitting for a month or two unused the oil tank had drained down and filled the sump. Im wondering if that would be enough to submerge it and cause any particles to float into it. Worth checking anyway.

One thing I did notice when I first started taking things off to replace the cam chain was that all the wiring had been messily stuffed under the tank from when it was in at the shop to get output shaft bearings replaced and the part of the loom that goes to the MAP sensor was stretched out tight for the connector to reach. I have since tidied things up to how they were when I first got the bike. Im thinking theres a possibility the wiring to the sensor could have been stressed and unplugging it again and moving things around has caused a break. If I still cant get a connection with tuneecu I will have a look through the manual and see if theres any checking I can do with the multimeter on the MAP sensor and loom to try and eliminate those as potential problems.

Other than that I can't think of anything else that has been moved or messed with that could cause the problem. I marked the middle coil and the leads to it with a strip of tape when I removed them to make sure they went back on the correct coil and the HT leads are all where they should be. The front coil hasnt been touched and I did give all the terminals a squeeze to make sure they were on firmly.

With Tune ECU - (This works for me) make sure you plug the cable into the bike (then switch on the ignition) only then plug the usb lead into the computer then start Tune Ecu on the computer from scratch - my computer will hang and not connect to the bike if I don't follow that connection sequence.

Also make sure you are disconnected from the internet and all other programs are shut down.

It still take a minute or two to connect - patience.

Well I’ve learned something critically important on this thread and here it is.

Do not take my Rocket apart.

As one final check it might be worth finding Top Dead Centre on no 1 cylinder and then check all your cam / crank alignment marks - use another method other than visual alignment of the timing marks to get the crank on to TDC like a dial gauge or similar method via the spark plug hole as @Rocket Scientist suggested in his earlier post.

Today I double checked tdc with a stick down the plughole on cylinder 1. (not exactly accurate without a dial gauge but close enough for what I needed. It matched the timing marks almost bang on.

I put the bike back together, checked all the map sensor lines again, removed and cleaned the crank position sensor.

Then I attached a car battery as well as the bike battery and tried again to connect with tuneecu. No luck unfortunately. I was able to get the tuneboy trim software to connect without any issues, but no such joy with the tuneboy tuneedit software. The flash keihin software could connect maybe 1 time in 10.

I tried starting the bike but it was showing exactly the same symptoms as before. On the plus side it confirmed that I do actually know how to set cam timing and it was probably right the first time. Which is good as I was starting to doubt my spannering abilities.

Next I removed the ECU and opened up the workshop manual to take a look at what testing was possible on the MAP sensor.

Test 1, check continuity between between the relevant pins on the ECU connector and the pink wires on the MAP sensor connector. No continuity on any of the purple or black wires on the MAP sensor connector. emmmmmmmm hang on WHAT COLOUR? Had a look under the tank and found an almost identical 3 pin connector with PINK wires coming out of it. I unplugged it and looked in the end, hmmm its a slightly different shape and doesnt look like a match for the MAP sensor plug....... Every plug on the bike seems keyed so it will only fit with its mate. Oh well I will try it anyway. And. Surprise it fits. Feeling a bit excited I tried to fire the bike up again. It starts on the first press of the starter and settles into a steady idle. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy its fixed. And the top end is nice and quiet now without any of the ticking sounds it had on the original cam chain. And the clutch feels better, first gear selects smoothly without that little lurch it had before from the warped plates making contact.

So lessons learned.
1. I do know how to work a set of spanners.
2. I can even work a multimeter too.
3. I am also a complete moron.



Thanks for the help and suggestions along the way folks. It kept me motivated to keep working through things.

Excellent news and well done, you had the cam timing right all along.
So if you had read the MAP numbers they would have been - - - and you would have found it that way too