restojon said:
I've had a feeling that the timing was late as you can hear the exhaust note up by the headers, almost like a gentle pinking but not quite and no way to dial it out, looking forward to the weekend now.
Glad to hear I might have given you something to look forward to! Yes, I had exactly the symptoms you now describe, coupled to quite a splashy exhaust note (but then I do have a big bore, so I suppose that is exaggerated), so it may well be that we have similar issues - quite likely all things considered.
mf.smith said:
Would like to see photos of that, for future reference, if you've taken any....
It was a bit dark, so only one or two shots are any good, but I've snapped some pages from the workshop manual to help (sorry about the quality!). Basically what I did it was....
I whizzed the rocker cover off and rotated the engine by hand until the exhaust valve of cylinder 1 was open (ie, 2nd valve in from the radiator was depressed by the cam) - having the plugs out really helps make this easier and more precise. I then opened the little inspection cover on the flywheel housing (beneath the washer bottle) and looked for the |EP| mark to come in line with the small pointer.
There is a pin bolted onto the outside of the flywheel housing next to the engine (above right diagram). Undo the 7/16 AF bolt, turn the pin around and slide it in through the hole until it goes through the flywheel (a lot of jiggling required here!) and locks it in position.
Then take a look at the upper chain wheel. This is what mine looked like:
The slot on the camshaft flange should line up with the steel 'L'-shaped pin that is bolted down with the strap. On reflection, mine was probably only 5 teeth out, but even this 'small' change has made a fairly dramatic difference.
Next, I knocked off the lock-tabs on the two bolts holding the chain wheel to the camshaft and took the left hand one out (they are positioned at about 10 and 4 o'clock when in the EP position - not the position shown in the pic!). I backed the right one off until it was nearly out but still gripping the thread. I then pulled the whole chain wheel forwards until the central thread poked through the 'smile'-shaped slot in the front mounting bracket and put a 9/16 AF nut on it. I used one of the nuts on the steering idler bracket for this (just needed to remember to put it back!). I then took the right hand bolt out of the chain wheel, and also extracted a simple wire circlip (visible at 9 o'clock on this wheel in this pic).
The camshaft was now free. I rotated it by nudging it round with a hammer and a thin piece of wood placed in the slot on the flange until it lined up with the L-shaped pin. Once aligned, I undid the clamp (first picture) that holds the 'L'-shaped pin down and rotated it so the right-angled side was pointing skywards, slid it forward so that it engaged the slot in the camshaft flange and bolted the clamp back on (see left pic in first diagram).
Then using a bit of force, I eased the outer ring of the chain wheel off the inner circle wheel. The tiny teeth are visible at this stage, and it's just a matter of pushing the outer wheel off the back. Once free, I kept tight hold of it so as not to slacken the chains and cause the tensioner to fall off inside. If you push it away from you, it actually sits quite neatly over the end of the camshaft flange, allowing you to leave it safely there while you faff with the central wheel bit.
For the next bit, I found it easier to take the 9/16 AF securing bolt off the smiley-face bit and handle the inner toothed wheel separately. I put the long bolts back through it (with the locking tab), lined these up with the bolt holes in the camshaft, but only screwed them in just far enough to grip, whilst still allowing the chain wheel to move independently (ie, teeth not yet meshed). The trick then is to put as much inwards force as you can on the left side (as you are looking at it) of the chain to pull the right side (the driven side) really tight. When it's taut, simply pushing the inner wheel home until its teeth mesh with the chain wheel, whizz up the bolts and..... refitting is the reverse of removal, as they say!
If the teeth won't line up, spin the wheel through 180 degrees, and it will fit that way. It has an odd number of teeth, which is over-engineering to the nth degree!
Oh, and don't forget to take the L-shaped locking pin out before you put the rocker cover back on! D'oh!
That's how I did it anyway. Took me about 2 hours, as I took the chain tensioner out for inspection and checked the valve clearances as well.
Michael