Hey all,
Just finished up a valve adjustment on my 2011 C14, 31K miles. I've done valve adjustments on several other bikes (and cars) without issue, so I'm not too green, but that doesn't mean I can't make a simple mistake, so please don't hesitate to run the most basic of ideas past me. Here's the skinny:
Bike ran great prior to tearing into it, but AFAIK the valves hadn't ever been checked. Did a valve adjustment. Was very careful when measuring clearances and verifying shim thickness, and re-measured on all valves after swapping shims to verify correct clearances now exist. I was also quite meticulous about setting the timing, and rotated the engine several revolutions after reinstalling the CCT to make sure everything was lined up before putting the valve cover back on. I've got it all reassembled, except for plastics. Worth noting that I also replaced the exhaust header nuts with locking flange nuts, one nut at a time... so that "shouldn't" have affected anything but worth mentioning. All new spark plugs and gaskets were used, including new o-rings on the cam sensors.
I fired the bike up and was 'lopey', almost sounding like a v-twin. I let it idle for about 5 seconds but no change. Feeling the headers, 1+2 were hot, 3 was 'warm' and 4 was cold. To be honest, I could not tell if 3 was firing or was just warm from the adjacent cylinder.
I didn't touch the fuel system at all. I am (at this point) fairly confident that I got timing correct as I marked both the cams and camchain before removing, and didn't rotate the engine at all while the cams were out, plus rechecked timing as I said above. So, I think it is more than likely either a spark issue or an air issue (going to verify the air suction valve covers are torqued).
I'm going to go down to the garage and start tearing it apart, but wanted to toss this out there to see what ideas y'all had to check. I've already verified the plug coils are all fully plugged in but will likely pull them all out, recheck spark plug torque and make sure they're fully seated. I am also not sure I installed the plug coil subharness per the FSM, underneath the intake cam sensor wiring, so I'll check that and fix if needed. Finally, I may swap the plug on cylinder #4 just in case I got a bad one from the factory.
Any and all ideas welcome! If checking all the above (plus any ideas you all can throw my way) don't solve it, I'll do a compression test to be 100% sure my timing is spot on.
Thanks for your input!
Aaron
Just finished up a valve adjustment on my 2011 C14, 31K miles. I've done valve adjustments on several other bikes (and cars) without issue, so I'm not too green, but that doesn't mean I can't make a simple mistake, so please don't hesitate to run the most basic of ideas past me. Here's the skinny:
Bike ran great prior to tearing into it, but AFAIK the valves hadn't ever been checked. Did a valve adjustment. Was very careful when measuring clearances and verifying shim thickness, and re-measured on all valves after swapping shims to verify correct clearances now exist. I was also quite meticulous about setting the timing, and rotated the engine several revolutions after reinstalling the CCT to make sure everything was lined up before putting the valve cover back on. I've got it all reassembled, except for plastics. Worth noting that I also replaced the exhaust header nuts with locking flange nuts, one nut at a time... so that "shouldn't" have affected anything but worth mentioning. All new spark plugs and gaskets were used, including new o-rings on the cam sensors.
I fired the bike up and was 'lopey', almost sounding like a v-twin. I let it idle for about 5 seconds but no change. Feeling the headers, 1+2 were hot, 3 was 'warm' and 4 was cold. To be honest, I could not tell if 3 was firing or was just warm from the adjacent cylinder.
I didn't touch the fuel system at all. I am (at this point) fairly confident that I got timing correct as I marked both the cams and camchain before removing, and didn't rotate the engine at all while the cams were out, plus rechecked timing as I said above. So, I think it is more than likely either a spark issue or an air issue (going to verify the air suction valve covers are torqued).
I'm going to go down to the garage and start tearing it apart, but wanted to toss this out there to see what ideas y'all had to check. I've already verified the plug coils are all fully plugged in but will likely pull them all out, recheck spark plug torque and make sure they're fully seated. I am also not sure I installed the plug coil subharness per the FSM, underneath the intake cam sensor wiring, so I'll check that and fix if needed. Finally, I may swap the plug on cylinder #4 just in case I got a bad one from the factory.
Any and all ideas welcome! If checking all the above (plus any ideas you all can throw my way) don't solve it, I'll do a compression test to be 100% sure my timing is spot on.
Thanks for your input!
Aaron