Loud "Snap" when rotating engine

[b717doc]

1982 GS1100GL(Z). Finally got cylinder assembly installed over new piston rings, installed cylinder head and torqued, installed both cams per clymer (I thought) and torqued bearing caps. When engine is rotated with large wrench on right side, severe "snaps" occur from all valves, accompanied with nice splash of engine oil that I coated them with for lube. Re-counted pins in cam chain, found to be one pin off (should be 20, I had 21). Re-installed intake cam, Snapping now gone (go figure)...Now fighting the carburetor thing.....Plugs are a firin...and may come to life soon...wish me luck....

[mark]

Good luck and success!

[Robert Corrie]

20 vs 21 pins from where to where?Did you adjust the chain or shorten it?I'm just trying to understand whats going on before I do my rebuild to avoid problems.

[b717doc]

War of the GS1100GL (Z) engine....

Hey Robbie....

You got the right guy....If you go by the Clymer manual...it's pretty straight forward. 1) You MUST have the clymer manual. 2) Take your time 3) Keep your parts in order, and shop clean. These are all problems I had. I got in such a hurry, I had nuts and bolts all over the garage floor, kicking them and stuff, and found myself hunting tools and parts more than making progress. Know when to stop....10 hours is too much, you start losing progress after that. If you double check every step, your progress will increase 2 fold. For instance, I read the manual once, applied what I thought I read (21 chain pins between the arrows on the cam gears), torqued everything down, and found that it should have been 20 pins, INCLUDING the ones the arrow was pointing at (as depicted)...BIG difference. The Lobes on the cams should be positioned identically, if you are even off 1 pin, you will hear the valves produce a loud "snap" when you rotate the crank. This in an indication that the camshafts are incorrectly positioned....
I have the cylinder head torqued, exhaust installed, and will install the camshafts and chain tonite (for the 4th time) and hopefully she will come to life. I do have good compression after the rings kicked my a-- all over the garage (they were a B----!!!). Found forward cam chain guard in box on floor after total assembly, had to start all over.....So now I can remove and install the entire cylinder head, cams and chain to include the exhaust in under 40 minutes!!!! Keep you updated (got my Clymer off E-bay for $15 total, normal price was $29.95), Oh Yeah....Make DAMN sure you check the Supplements in the back of the Clymer, as they are crucial.....

[b717doc]

Update....

Hey Robert, The clymer says "install rectangular O-ring seal and cylinder gasket onto cylinder block".....DON'T DO IT!!!! I did this, and lost compression on #2 and #3, and bowed head. RE-RE-REmoved cylinder head again, removed o-ring seal, checked for warpage (none noted), called Suzuki, and they say it's a typo....Coated cylinder head gasket with permatex gasket sealer (aerosol type), re-installed and torqued...
Attempted to install camshafts, intake cam will not go now. Cam chain in some type of weird kink.....Frustration level is at a 12 now on a scale of 1-10.....Must be right this time, as every step is kicking my A--! Cam chain tensioner decided it was tired of playing, so removed tensioner, went to bed.....will try again tonite to bring her to life. Will update tomorrow.

[Robert Corrie]

Relax,take your time.Sometimes you might just need to walk away for a day or two.

[b717doc]

SHE'S ALIVE!!!.....Tried starting her again after re-installing camshafts, nothing doing.....blew carbs off of head twice....Neighbor came by and pointed out that both intake and exhaust valves were opening simultaneously.....that can't be,,,,hmmmm........found that gear on intake cam was installed 180 degrees out.....DO NOT TAKE BOLTS OUT OF CAMSHAFT GEARS!!!! Repositioned gear 180 degrees, fired right up, generating lots of smoke from residual oil on engine....minor leaks here and there, but she does run as well as can be expected.....blew all instrument lights while accelerating, apparently voltage regulator not regulating (shocking)......
Pure miracle that pistons were not damaged by valves being out of sync.....the motorcycle gods were smiling!!!!!
So now I can say "been there, done that", please don't hesitate to ask any questions here in the forum.......b717doc@aol.com

[Joe Nardy]

Another tip when disassembling the valve train is to mark the camshaft, cam gears, and chain with a dab of paint at their contact points to ensure correct orientation and spacing. Make all the marks on the same side of the engine and at a specific crankshaft position (like TDC). This will greatly simplify re-assembly and help avoid both issues described above.

Thanks,
Joe

[b717doc]

Gettin closer.....

Installed gas tank and carbs, hooked everything up again, changed oil and filter, temporarily installed seat (missing hardware), took her up the street.....rolled back throttle just to see what would happen, and she sputtered a little then you could hear the air being sucked into the venturi's as I was nealy thrown from the bike. Some kind of "power band" or something kicked in around 5000 rpm and launched me and the bike down the cul-de-sac at about 90 mph before I knew what happened!!!
Idle speed still "creeping" for some reason, seems to get steadier as I ride her more....Popping from exhaust getting better as well......Absolutely no leaks (fuel OR oil) at this time....Almost ready to eat some Harley's.....Can't frikkin' wait!!! :twisted: