Help Me With This ..

You Wire Tied The Chain And Sprk After You Removed The Rear Cct, If I Do That 1st Then That Would Keep Them From Jumping Right ?

Put a zip tie around the cam chain beforeyou remove the rear CCT, not after. I recomend doing this as it only involves a few more minutes of removing the cover and you will be sure not to have jumped any teeth..... just remember to take the tie off when the new CCT is installed... The front will be fine as long as you are directly on the FT line.

Thanks Tommy, I'll Put It Around Both B4 I Remove Just To Be Sure.
Another ? Do You Know How To Diy The Clutch And Valves If So[we],
Do I Need Special Tools ?

search
 

You should be able to find that info with the search tool.

Perfect time to do it, mine went at 20k

Funny question, but do we need to drain the oil before we do this job? Mine was drained the last time i was doing it, but i was rebuilding the engine. I put in used tensioners instead of these, sadly, so i need to do it now.

NO need to drain the oil. but if you were to remove the head, I suggest you change the oil at that time.

Here is his Ebay store.

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZoicuride

I think my total with gaskets came out to 103 shipped to WA from Cali.

Probably gonna do the install tomarrow after work.

Great write up thanks

Is changing the CCTs over worth it if you don't do track riding?

From what I understand, this is something that only needs to be done if your at high speeds, lots of tension, etc etc. What is considered high enough speeds to warrant such a change?

I'm buying a '98 SHawk with 26K miles. The CCT is still original. How can tell if it needds replacing?

Just do it!
 

Just do it. With that mileage you can think of it as a ticking time bomb and you don't know the detonation time. I have had one go at 20k and my replacement ones began to make noise. It just simply isn't worth it. I only got 151 miles on my Superhawk before mine went the first time, 9 days of riding. I was so disappointed and the previous owner was a jerk and wouldn't do anything to help me. So once again, i say, just do it. You will thank yourself once it is done because you wont be randomly stranded on the side of the road with a blown engine 9 days after you buy it :)
Good luck with your new Hawk

Calitoz,
I've never been into one of these so correct me if I'm wrong, but you talk about needing to have the piston at absolute TDC in order to avoid having the cam chain jump, presumably from being moved by a valve spring trying to close an open valve, when the CCT is removed. It seems to me that this would only be true if the piston were at TDC of the exhuast stroke, and that if you rotated the crank 360 degrees and the piston were at the top of its compression stroke, then both valves would be closed and all four valve followers would be on the heels of their respective lobes and you would have quite a few degrees of crank play before a lobe would start pressing on a valve and everything would stay put.

Also, you talk fighting engine compression by moving the engine via the rear wheel in high gear. Why not simply remove the sparkplugs in the first place and rotate the engine with a wrench? Plug removal would also avoid any possibility that engine compression would cause any parts to move when tension was removed from a cam chain.

Looks like a pretty easy job as far as engine work goes, in fact the biggest thing I'm worried about is maybe having to take the fairing off, what am I missing here?

I believe you are correct in the assumption. Correct me if I am wrong, the thing about this method is without removing the cam cover, you can't tell what stroke it is at. . At absolute TDC as indicated by the crank shaft "RT" and "FT", it is safe to remove the CCT without it jumping. Obviously the best method is to remove the cam cover and rotate it until no cam lobe is putting any pressure on the valve stem. At that point, it is irrelevant if you are TDC or not.

I did not try your method but it sounds logical. The issue is whether you want to go through the removal process of the sparkplug. I find it a pain.

It is easy enough if you are patient....as for the fairing, it is the easiest removal process of any bike that I've encountered.

No..do it now...if anything, for the peace of mind

[quote=calitoz;140616]I believe you are correct in the assumption. The thing about this method is without removing the cam cover, you can't tell what stroke it is at. Correct me if I am wrong. At absolute TDC as indicated by the crank shaft "RT" and "FT", it is safe to remove the CCT without it jumping. Obviously the best method is to remove the cam cover and rotate it until no cam lobe is putting any pressure on the valve stem. At that point, it is irrelevant if you are TDC or not.

No, the cams are geared to rotate once for every two revolutions of the crank, so without removing the cover you have a random 50/50 chance of being on the compression stroke when the "FT" or "RT" appears. If you happen to be at TDC on the exhaust stroke and a valve is open when you remove the CCT you risk the valve trying to close and a jumped tooth. Gotta check those valve clearances anyway so why not just remove the covers so you can see what you're doing?

One additional thing that occured to me is to only rotate the engine forward in order to insure that all of the slack is on the back side of the chain where the tensioner is located before removing it. That way you can be reasonably sure your initial setting of the manual CCT is accurate. I would then rotate the engine for a few revolutions and recheck the setting, again on TDC of the compression stroke. When it comes to engine work, mistakes can be very expensive.

You're correct about the revolution ratio of camlobes vs crank however, when at TDC it doesn't effect the removal of the CCT irrelevant of exhaust or intake stroke. There are two distinct camlobe position at the each RT or FT mark as mentioned above. One where absolutely no pressure on the valve stem [cam are pointing up] and one when they both make contact with the valve seat but not enough pressure to jump the chains when tensions are removed.

Lastly, at absolute TDC on the exhaust stroke, the valves are NOT open contrary to your above statement.

Bottom line is this at absolute TDC it is safe to remove the CCT

I don't disagree with you on whether or not to remove the cover as it is a better idea especially (adjustment of valves are in order, you going to change the oil anyway, etc) but I will leave the reasoning for not removing it to others and there are a number of reason why it is preferred.

As for your statement of rotating the engine in forward motion, it is redundant and is assumed as forward motion (natural tendency) is much easier then trying to reverse it to get back to the mark.

Remember, this how to is a generalization of how to do the CCT. There are other ways to do it and I will never say one way is better then the next. This is just my way and the quickest way not necessarily the proper way according to others. When is the last time two mechanics agreed on the methodology of the removal of a 9/16 bolt?

Does the need for a new CCT apply to all years of the Superhawk? Or did Honda fix the design of the CCT somewhere in its lifespan? Thanks for the info!

apparently honda did upgrade or 'fix' the tensioner - I do not know what year that went into effect but it was in the early models. There have been reported failures which result in major engine damage and as a result a great deal of caution on this site - personally I think the hype and worry is out of proportion to the problem, but I suppose mine could fail tomorrow. That said, if you like working on your bike and you follow the instructions in this excellent post and don't take shortcuts, its a simple job - you can get some other maintenance done at same time (valve adjustment in particular) and in that light its an easy 'why not'. It then requires maintenance - not a lot, but it does require it. To put it in perspective I think over the past year I've read of more bent valves from botched installations of the manual CCTs than I had of failures on the stock parts. So if you are going to do something that is probably overkill for 95% of cases, at least do it right. my perspective at least

Ok,
I have worked on this for the last 3 months. Here are recent pix of the job. I am able to get the timing mark on the crank, but the cams are not perfectly lined up. It seems that they are about 2 degrees off. Please let me know what you think, so i can fix it right now and finish this.
http://img137.imageshack.us/img137/5...argeap5.th.jpg
This shows it with the cams lined up, but the timing mark on the crank is about 2mm away.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/8...argeny9.th.jpg
This shows what the cams look like when the cranks timing mark is set. They are not correct. I am seriously confused.

Ok, I just started taking the tensioners after talking to cilby. Here is what is going on. I have just begun to remove the tensioner and the cams are starting to slack. So i have not completed it and i have not heard a click, so i know i can just screw them back in and no harm will be done. Here are the pix.

http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/2...argerm0.th.jpg

http://img46.imageshack.us/img46/804...argees6.th.jpg
Lobes are offset and off the valves.
http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/5...argemo2.th.jpg
Perfectly lined up!

http://img166.imageshack.us/img166/9...argeft0.th.jpg
THey are slacking :(
http://img517.imageshack.us/img517/3...argemq1.th.jpg

I am really concerned and confused why it isnt working as planned. Please give me any advice you have.

A NEW IDEA
 

Update:
Well, my friend finally helped me out and we did something that i haven't heard discussed on the forum. We have successfully done the rear tensioner and it wasn't that bad. The trick was using a hook to force the chain in tension during the switch. Obviously this takes a second person, but it worked marvelously. We did all the work on timing as i have already talked about but then we used a hook to hold the chain in, just in case it wasn't totally tight. Well it worked just great! I believe it was a car battery tie down and we just hooked it on the chain about the point where the tensioner was and just held it in. We also used a sharpie and made marks to where we started. After we were done everything was just perfect! So i would strongly suggest people carefully add this to their tensioner job.

I'm confused. Where did you hook the chain? I understand you said "about the point where the tensioner was" but that's inside the head, plus the idea is to mobilize the chain before the tensioner is removed. I don't get it. :confused::?:

Ok, i will be doing the front in a few days with the same technique. it is actually incredibly simple, as long as your friend who is helping you doesn't move. I will post a few pix next time. We took a hook, and just pulled the chain. It was in almost the exact same location that the original tensioner was pushing. Yes this is inside the head. It worked perfectly.

OKAY, so great news and weird news. First, the bike is done. Both tensioners are on and no bad issues.

It was very strange, it timed perfectly this time. I just set it like described in the walkthrough, no issues at all.

The Problem: The tension in the chain is very very substantial. So i need advice. Before i started the job, and i just had taken the valve cover off, the chain was really tight, there was no slack in the chain. So i want to know what people think of that? I have the new tensioner on, but i have turned the engine like 10x and it stays tight even when i loosen the tensioner. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks!

Are you replacing with OEM or using APEs?

APE

cct
 

where did you bay the manual cct,can anybady recomend supplaier?

Dang, I cant remember where i got mine, I think i got them off of ebay, but i think APE sells them directly.
http://cbrzone.com/sprockets.html

that is their website. They are about 51 bucks a piece. You also want to buy the gaskets. Good luck!

Well these are on ebay for about $52. I talked to them and they said they had 5 in stock. http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...m=160258990989

And if you want to go with the OEM the best price I found was at service honda http://www.servicehonda.com/index.html I think their OEM were the same price as the APE manuals from the other place. Stealership wants $88 for the same damned thing!

Do not!! I mean DO NOT go with OEM. Well, unless you want to destroy your valves down the road.
:D
Have a nice day :)