Motorcycle Forum / General / Motorcycles / July 2007

Charlie Siegrist <chamarsie.spam@spam.spam.eggs.and.spam.cableone.net>
wrote:

Right. This is one of those little things that you'll only find out by
experience, or by talking to someone who really, really knows
Triumphs[1]. In my case it was the former.

The Trumf is a triple. There might be a little para in the manual
telling you to block the engine or the camchain tensioner blade when you
remove the tensioner unit, if you plan to remove the shims by shifting
the cams (which is a lot quicker than using the factory tool, and is the
method used by my local dealer).

As it's a triple, with one piston up, one down, and one somewhere in the
middle, it tries to rotate, and then the cam sprocket on the end of the
crank jumps the chain.

A couple of years back, a mate and I had a shim-fest, involving
re-shimming his T'bird 900 and my Trophy 1200, and yes, this happened
with his T'bird. We didn't notice. We rotated the engine by hand when it
was back together, and it turned OK, but it wouldn't fire on the
starter, and sounded 'odd', and we realised what had happened. Luckily,
Triumph's camchain placement and design means that re-timing the engine
is very, very easy and doesn't require the cams to be removed again.
Does need two pairs of hands, though.

Also, if you plan to use the factory tool, be aware that there are two
types. They changed the cam cap design - or something, I can't remember
now - some time in the mid- to late-1990s and I discovered that the
factory tool I'd bought on ebay was the wrong type.

Which was why we had to do the job by shifting the cams to remove the
shims....

So check the engine and frame number of your Triumph and use it when
ordering the factory tool....

[1] Rather than someone who simply tries to interpret schematics....

The Suzuki valve shim tool is a simple, elegant lever device for holding the
tappet down by prying on it.

http://motionpro.com/images/groups/218.jpg

Speed Triple valve shim tool is P/N Valve shim removal tool 5577892-001

http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/showschematic.asp?dept_id=2291977

You bolt that machine shop monstrosity to the cam bearing cap to hold the
tappet down while you fish the shim out with a machinist's scribe.

Be very careful bolting that thing to your cam bearing caps!

Anybody who has ever had to remove the cams from an OHC engine knows to
remove the cam chain tensioner first and reinstall it last. They also know
about securing the cam chain to a frame rail with a
piece of wire to keep the bottom run of chain from dropping off the
crankshaft sprocket.

http://www.canyonchasers.net/shop/955i/valves.php

It sure looks simple to me. But you could conceivably get into trouble using
the Triumph monstrosity which bolts to the upper cam bearing cap if you're a
klutz. If you somehow managed to strip out the threads or break the cam
bearing cap, you'd need a new cylinder head.

http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/showschematic.asp?dept_id=2291933

You will notice that #2 are the bolts that hold the cam bearing cap down and
there is NO separate
part number for the cap itself. That's because the cam bearing caps and
cylinder head are line bored
as a set at the factory.

So, imagine this scenario. You think that the Triumph factory tool takes too
long to use and you decide to
remove the cams instead.

When you re-install the cams and go to torque down the bearing caps, the
torque wrench keeps
turning and never clicks and suddenly one of the cam bearing caps *breaks*

You're screwed at that point, because you cannot get the cam bearing cap as a
separate part...

Whenever you go to reinstall cam bearing caps, the bolts and bolt holes need
to be degreased.

The purpose in torquing a bolt is to increase the friction between the
threads and the part they thread into.

If that part is oily, you never get the friction you want, so the clicker
torque wrench never clicks,
but you do get the tension on the bolt, which breaks the bolt or the aluminum
part.

We recently read about a perfectionist shade tree mechanic who just had to
torque down his 1200
Bandit's valve cover bolts with a clicker wrench. He broke the threaded tower
off one cam bearing cap
because he didn't know to degrease the bolts.