Fort Worth Motorcycle Riders

Dropped the bike off at DFW Honda yesterday afternoon. This morning a about 5:30 I figured out what happened. That is the good news and the short conclusion is it was not a manufacture issue. It was my F$$$ up!

After a lot of thought about how the decompression system could have come dismantled without any of the individual pieces being damaged I believe that the right cam bearing was just to the right of the set ring that would have held it in place. The bearing worked its way to the end of the cam, journal and cam cap. This allowed the set pin located under the bearing to come out due to centrifugal force of the spinning cam. This allowed the decompression weight to march ahead of the bearing and free the decompression plunger. When the bearing off, the metal beat down began and I hit the stop button. Just my theory at this point, we will see what the professional says.....

What did you do to cause the issue?

dufremle wrote:What did you do to cause the issue?

In retrospect, I should have placed the set rings directly on the bearings rather than placing them in the channels in the cam cap that I then placed on top of the bearings. I believe this is what allowed the right cam bearing to slide to the right by about 3-4mm when I placed the cam cap with bearing not engaging with the set ring that would have held it in place. So other than the 11 ft.lbs of torque I put on the cam cap bolts, there was nothing to keep the bearing from working its way off the end of the cam. When the bearing slide off it uncovered the decompression weight set pin which took a trip to the exhaust side of the head and freed the decompression weight to slide out of the cam, which released the plunger to go play with the stator at the bottom of the timing chain well. None of these parts was damaged, in fact, I was able to reassemble all of them and only realized that there is now a bigger issue ie. bent valve or something that wouldn't let me hand crank the motor after reassembly.

Tooner wrote:

dufremle wrote:What did you do to cause the issue?

In retrospect, I should have placed the set rings directly on the bearings rather than placing them in the channels in the cam cap that I then placed on top of the bearings. I believe this is what allowed the right cam bearing to slide to the right by about 3-4mm when I placed the cam cap with bearing not engaging with the set ring that would have held it in place. So other than the 11 ft.lbs of torque I put on the cam cap bolts, there was nothing to keep the bearing from working its way off the end of the cam. When the bearing slide off it uncovered the decompression weight set pin which took a trip to the exhaust side of the head and freed the decompression weight to slide out of the cam, which released the plunger to go play with the stator at the bottom of the timing chain well. None of these parts was damaged, in fact, I was able to reassemble all of them and only realized that there is now a bigger issue ie. bent valve or something that wouldn't let me hand crank the motor after reassembly.

At least you know what you are doing now, and know engines well enough to figure it out. I'm not sure what some of those words even are. If you need help I can move stuff, or drop a bolt in the lower case, whatever you need

Thanks Matt at this point I just need a Beer.

Sounds like a learning experience. We have all been there. I once tangled my cars wiring harness around a drill bit while drilling a hole through the fire wall. So many little wires shredded.


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Mechanic said that it looks like the cam is out of true (bent) and the right intake rocker arm is also bent. He says to keep the head and replace the camshaft assembly. $1200, most of which is labor costs.

At least the motor wasn't destroyed

dufremle wrote:At least the motor wasn't destroyed

for sure, it could have been much worse.