Someone PLEASE help
Supporter
Joined: Oct 2009
Posts: 2,056
Likes: 248
From: Milton Mills NH
You are coming up on compression with an intake valve open. Take a break. You are over thinking the problem.
Thread Starter
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Intermediate
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
From: Illinois
I'm going to pull the cam cover off of it again tonight when I get home from work. I checked it on Saturday and the #1 was nowhere near tdc with the cam marks lined up. I stepped away from it for the last two days now it's really eating at me.
Cruiser
Joined: Feb 2017
Posts: 137
Likes: 5
From: il
heres my 2 cents, a long time ago when I was workin on my 1972 sportster I learned the fly wheel had 2 marks on em and if ya wasn't knowin whitch one you was lookin at you might waste weeks of ridin cause you was sure ya had all the marks lined up. And with your first you might not know her as well as you think , I don't know if they still have a timing mark on the flywheel or if you use that mark to set timing just $.02
TDC doesn't matter when installing the cam. If the (correct) timing mark on the cam gear is lined up with the timing mark on the pinion gear, you're good.
Thread Starter
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Intermediate
Joined: May 2017
Posts: 33
Likes: 0
From: Illinois
Idk this has me all messed up. So basically if my pinion gear is lined up with the camshaft and the oil breather I'm good? Then go ahead and set my timing after that? Which is what I had thought but a few people were saying had to be tdc while all the marks lined up. I know all the marks are lined up so tonight I will just start over with the whole timing process. Let you guys know tomorrow how it goes. Thanks everyone!!
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There are no "strokes"(ie, "compression", "exhaust", "right" or "wrong" etc) on the crankshaft. When it rotates 360 degrees, the pistons go up, they come down, and that's it. Strokes have to do with the interaction between the crankshaft and the camshaft, and as long as the timing mark on the cam gear is aligned with the timing mark on the pinion gear, you're set. Should look like this:
Again, when installing the cam, do not be concerned with where the pistons happen to be in the cylinders. Put the pinion gear timing mark at 12 o'clock, install the cam with it's timing mark at 6 o'clock, then install the breather with it's timing mark aligned to the other timing mark on the cam. That's it.
If your timing marks are lined up, the only way your engine could be out of time mechanically (meaning that the motion of the pistons is not correctly synchronized with the motion of the valves) is if either the pinion gear or the cam gear was installed incorrectly on it's respective shaft. I suppose that isn't impossible (particularly on the cam gear), but I would be working from the assumption for now that they are correct.
When you installed the ignition, can we assume that (a) you're certain the front cylinder was at TDC on the compression stroke and (b) you initially had the ignition module rotated to the limit of it's travel CCW and (c) slowly rotated it CW until the indicator light just went out?
If you did that, then the ignition timing should be at least close enough for the bike to run.
If you're confident that all of that checks out, you should start with the electrical stuff that Schex3x posted above before you start taking things apart.
