Cam Gear installation help

[titanusmc]

Good afternoon from Washington, I'm Scott and I am a new Buell owner and an amateur mechanic. I purchased my Buell around 8 months ago and have been modifying it to make it my own ever since. One of my latest and probably one of the final touches I chose to do on my 2008 XB12R was to have the Primary cover/gear covers powder coated and my headers ceramic coated. It has been a journey! I recently picked up my parts and started back to work. with the Primary cover back on I felt like I was off to a great start. However I am about to put back on the gear cover, when I am faced with an issue that I have put off since dis-assembly. My Rear Exhaust Cam Gear slipped out when the cover was removed. My buddy, who was warned that this was a possibility, made this happen, as he was working the right side while I worked the left. I tried to put the gear back in, rotated the motor in fifth gear via the tire, to get the alignment. however it seams that the Push-rod/hydraulic lifter will not allow me to fully seat the gear! I realized this after talking to a dealer over the phone. I managed to get the headers off without fully taking apart my bike, and would really like to avoid tearing it down even more, are there any tricks to seating this Cam? without having to disassemble the cylinder heads/ rocker box etc...thank you for your time -Scott

 

[christianmb]

I would say that you would be able to put it where you think it needs to go, rotate the engine to see if you were right. If not, count the teeth you are off, back it off to release tension, move it, recheck, and keep doing that until it is correct. getting your cover back on is going to be a special breed of PITA without at least taking the rocker boxes loose to release tension on the lifters/pushrods. Good luck! I had the same thing happen to me the first time I did this.

 

[muz720]

There are marks on the cams near the gear teeth (little dots) you need to have them match each other. Rotate the engine till you are at TDC for the Cylinder and you my get lucky and have room the slide the cam under the lifter? Otherwise you will need to take the rocker cover off and losin the anti-rotation screw on that lifter to get it in place. good luck