Missing RT and FT marks, but running.

[danishalf]

Being the lucky new owner of a very used firestorm (And to this forum) I decided to treat her to a major service including manual cct's. Which brings me to writing this post.

The bike runs fine, but something is odd.

I can get the "fi and fe" "ri and re" to line up easily with the pistons physically in the right position.
However at no point does these align with the rt and ft mark in the inspection window.
Is this normal or have the alternator rotor slipped.
Or more likely am I missing something.

Please help a confused home mechanic.

Christian

Keeper of following bikes
Ciao piaggio
Honda cd50
Honda cbr400rr
Honda cb550
Honda vfr750f
And now Honda vtr1000f

[macdee]

check out cybercarls thread see if that helps

http://www.vtr1000.org/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 31&t=28583

[VTRDark]

Welcome to the forum Christian Seems to be a timing night as I have just had to deal with another timing thread.

to line up easily with the pistons physically in the right position.

You mean get the piston positioned at TDC on the compression stroke for whichever cylinder your working on

However at no point does these align with the rt and ft mark in the inspection window.
Is this normal or have the alternator rotor slipped.

The stator/alternator should not slip because it can only go on one way as there is a woodruff key for it to align onto the crankshaft with. I suspect your not at TDC on the compression stroke.

See link in above post and all should become a lot more clear.

(:-})

[tony.mon]

The simplest thing to do is to reference the FT (front top dead centre) and RT (Rear same) to the piston position.
Remove the plugs, and with a long screwdriver, rotate the engine as it nears top dead centre so that you can feel when the screwdriver is pushed furthest up the bore. If that coincides with a tdc mark for the relevant cylinder, all well and good.

I don't actually understand your comments about the other marks lining up- they're on the cam sprockets.
It's the relationship between the crank and cams that needs to be in synch.

[danishalf]

I followed the guide posted above when I checked the bike and installed the cct's.

To simplify; the timing is set right and the bike runs perfect.
However the marks in the inspection window are completely wrong.

I assume the mark are on the alternator rotor which is fixed with a woodruff key.
Making errors here are from my thinking most likely by the previous owner installing without the woodruff key or alternative rotor fitted. I can also see several large hammer marks which might point to previous owner being a little hard handed.

Its seems that I have to take that side apart to figure out what the previous owner did.
The weather was not for riding anyway.

Thanks
Christian

[VTRDark]

I can also see several large hammer marks which might point to previous owner being a little hard handed.

It sounds to me like the previous owner has put a lightened flywheel on and in the process of getting the flywheel/rotor cut down they have cut the timing marks off. They have also been a bit heavy handed taking it on and off it's got hammer marks.

You can take that cover off without the fear of oil leaking everywhere with the bike in an upright position. Not much oil gets in there! So stick it on a paddock or abba stand. There's only a few bolts to undo. The hardest part is pulling the cover off fighting against the magnetic pull.

(:-})

[lloydie]

When I first got mine the timing marks didn't line up because some numpty didn't do up the flywheel right and it snapped the location key and spun on the crank .
I followed Tony's advice and set it up with the piston at tdc and used the timing marks on the cams and job was a good one .

[danishalf]

Thanks for the advice, will follow and dig a little deeper.

Thanks for the quick help on here, impressive.

Christian