So progress has been slower than I'd like. I havent had much time to work on it lately. I have been busy w work, family, and summer gatherings.
However, I have made a little progress.
Right now. The bike is stripped of plastics, airbox, carbs and valve covers.
While I'm down there im eliminating the pair valve, checking the valve clearance, adjusting the tps (mine was over 800 ohms) and checking carb jets. I have #48 pilot jets on order.
I ran into a little trouble with the center cover on the engine case. Whoever was in there last torqued the center plug to at least 60 ftlbs ..unreal..obviously didn't go by the 11ftlb spec. So the allen socket was already on the cap was already showing signs of stripping out and I could not get enough force into it without finishing it off....so had to whip out the dremel cut a slot across it and use my air hammer to get it out. Check the pic!
So I have a question.. while lining up the FT hash mark through the engine case sight hole, it seems like the FI and FE marks on the cam sprocket weren't lining up with the top of the engine head exactly but were slightly off. Is this normal? Also what is the F hashmark on the flywheel for? The rear cylinder? I expected to see an RT for that.
Anyway, by the time I got to this it was late night and I was losing focus so gave up for the night.

 

The cam markings will not line up exactly, but should be pretty close. You will see RT for the rear, I forget what the F is for.

 

The "F" mark is for "fire" as the plug fires before TDC and there is an "F" mark before the RT mark also.

 

As for the FI and FE marks not lining up, how far off are they?

It could be chain stretch or misaligned cam sprockets.

Place a straight edge on the head and check again.

As a reference, mine are dead on with 90K miles, though I have heard of some of them being off a little bit.

 

thanks to both of you.. this makes such obvious perfect sense i dont know how i didnt think of this (smacks himself in the forehead) it was late

the fi and fe marks are not far off only slightly ..about 1/8" or less or since we're talking japanese product approx. 3mm or less

 

wow! 90k? impressive! ive never been able to put more than 3k miles on a motorcycle per year in this new england climate. that would take me 30 years when is the big 100k going to happen?

 

The crankshaft hole covers in the stator covers on these bikes tend to corrode and extreme measures have to be taken to remove them. One approach is to make sure that the threads are greased and loosen and tighten the covers each time you wash the bike.