Also, I already suspected battery. Hooked up a jump & carry. Still no start. Starter spins, but doesn't turn over. Checked spark plug and is getting spark.

We (me and a friend) rotated that flywheel a million times. We got it to the point where both of the adjustment screws were closest to the covers, and the piston was up, and the adjustment mark was on. Either way. No matter where we rotated we couldn't get play in the rocker arms, and we tightened each screw about 5 or 6 full turns to get it to about .003. Is TDC comp before or after the woosh from the spark plug hole stroke? We noticed that it would go, one set of the adjustment screws went down (toward the ground) then the other, then both were up, and the piston was up and that's when we adjusted.

I followed the SS link on how to adjust.

Well,

I kind of figured out the issue. We didn't let the feeler gauge slip all the way into the slot, so we overtightened the valves. We went back, readjusted to .003 and now the bike starts and runs. However, it is not any more noisy (like louder) but the noise has changed to a weird metallic pinging type sound instead of the sewing machine noise it was before. I assumed by adjusting to .003 that we would have quieted the noise more than made it louder. Could we have possibly adjusted on the TDC EXHAUST stroke?

To kind of explain. We turned the fly COUNTER CLOCKWISE, in the same direction as the front wheel turns. We turned it so one set of adjusters went down (away from the adjustment cover), and got the WOOSH out the spark plug hole, then the other, then when the piston came up again, aligned it with the marking. Did we do it right? We didn't have any free play on the rocker arms though, and we tried both on the Compression and the Exhaust TDC strokes and couldn't get rocker free play on either.

I have to do that cam chain tensioner next week (I'm pulling it to send to you) so I will be letting the bike sit anyway, and when installing the new tensioner I plan on readjusting valves again if we did it wrong this time.

PS, the guy I did it with is the guy who will be buying it if I sell it to convert to a Ryca so, it's imperative that we both get it right.

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 11/07/15 at 20:44:13:


My 98 went 25K and change w/o a valve adjustment. My 03 has gone close to 40K total, and unless Pine or the owner before him fiddled with them, has never had an adjustment. Why...? Because they don't need it. Use Rotella 15W40 or Mobil 20W50. Use the crappiest low cost garbage gas you can find (bike only requires 85 octane). Get your jetting right so the top end isn't overheated by a lean burn condition.

How often in reality did the old Toyota 22r need a valve adjustment? Savage has the EXACT same followers and soft camshaft as the Yota engine did...

Your methods may vary.

I beileve you are having trouble finding the correct TDC....the crankshaft has two of them - but the cam only has one.

Rotate the crank in the direction of the wheels as you have been doing, then pay attention to the order in which the valves open/close.  When you are rotating the engine the front (exhaust ) rocker will open and close first, and then as it is closing and you reach the 1st TDC (marks on crank line up) the intake valve will begin to open.....that is NOT the place you want to adjust the valves and you need to rotate the crank another full revolution and the rear intake rocker will close during the next half a revolution of the crank, and then you will need another half revolution before the marks line up.

I suspect you adjusted the valves at the wrong point when the "Valve overlap" occurs, and now you have the valves really loose.

I think I got it figured out. Went back in today with my buddy and we readjusted them again. We had the intake open and close (set closest to carb) and the marks lined up, had play on the rocker arms. Did the adjustment tightly at .004. Regapped spark plug at between .8 and .9 mm as per manual Started her up. Started up just fine. No more smoke. Quiet valves. I believe we did everything correctly.

Problem now though, is lack of top end power. I completely lost top end power. Can't get the bike above 75mph at WOT and above 60 it hesitates like all hell. I have NO idea what changed.

Fresh gas. Just ran Seafoam through the gas tank, less than 200 miles ago. Plenty of gas in tank over 3/4 full.

The only thing I did was remove the air box cover to the air filter. I'm using the Nu-Foam custom filter and the airflow seemed fine. I did put a little chicken wire threading in the filter to help stop it from separating, and removed the rubber air duct from under the seat...

Could the extra airflow be causing this?

Any other causes for this? I'm baffled.

Best,
Matt