1982 Interstate

Joe, your warning was well taken. I got the head back and put it on and torqued it down and when I went to turn the pulley to line it up for the belt it stopped dead. I loosened all of the valve adjusters and took out the plugs but no difference. It looks like the #1 exhaust valve is on the way down but I don't know. What could be keeping the cam from rotating? I would imagine that I need to pull the head, but what then?

My guy had to replace three bent valves, put in the new seals and lapped them all. He had adjusted them on the bench. But now he has had surgery on his foot and is going to be down for a bit. Just when you think it is all going well.....

ok im not sure whats going on but it time to start over...can you posts pics?..so nothing damaged we need to check out some pics

Pics could help but of what?

If cams are UP and on their mark with crank at TDC 1, the crank should rotate freely.
Nothing dropped into a spark plug hole?

Hmm wait, if a valve needs to open so you can get the cam positioned, then it's hitting the piston when you rotate it. You may need to move the crank away from TDC so the cam will rotate and line up to its mark, then move it back to TDC 1.

My question is how does it work that a valve and the piston comes in contact? How can the valve be installed on the rocker arms that that would happen. There was nothing in the spark hole because they were still in it. Not sure if that is SOP but they were left in. I will take it off TDC and try to rotate the pulley. I was sure to rotate the pulley very slowly as not to damage anything and stopped when I felt resistance. I am in Missouri tonight and going turkey hunting in the morning with my grandson but will be back home tomorrow evening. Give you all time to thunk it out.

Basically there isn't enough room between the piston and valve for the valve to open any more than a very little amount when the piston is at TDC. . When the engine is running, the valves are closed or nearly so when the piston reaches top.

Agreed. Cam needs set with crank turned so pistons are down. When cam is in or near position the crank can then be put at TDC.

If I'm not mistaken,
your last reply spoke of having the sparkplugs still in place.
If this is true, and your engine has really good compression you will feel significant resistance when manually rotating the engine near the top of the compression stroke. Significant but not a solid stop as in internal component interference.
If I misunderstood you then just forget what I said.

sink pistons down......take belts off.....rotate cams by unbelted pulley to closest place to mark to in in time....now rotate motor to t1 position and start belt job timing again....is how i set set up to do job.....this is all done with plugs out have holes cover with empty plugg boots put on ..or some other method

First of all Terry the plugs were in. I took the mark off TDC 1 and the cam rotates fine. When I put the belts on before Joe, that is how I did it. I am going to try again but my problem tonight is I have a colonoscopy and EGD in the morning and I am having to take the prep and anyone who has had to do that then they know I can be kinda busy at times. Dear God.

I haven't posted for a while. After the problem I had with turning the motor and it hitting on something I had to go to Missouri for a funeral, then had a colonoscopy. But the real truth is that I got mad at the Gold Witch and have not done anything to it in over two weeks. Just plain sick of the problems with it. I even quit thinking about it first thing every morning. I have a bar for the back yard I am going to build in the next couple of days and then I'll try to figure out what is going on. My son and some buddies are on me about getting out riding again so that is some motivation. It will happen.

a break is good at times to recharge the desire.....afyer a stick in the spokes

After a long down time I am back at it with the Gold Witch. At last look I had finished the single carb conversion, but had not yet got that dialed in. Also was putting on the timing belts but when I turned the motor over it got stuck. There were bent valves. I found a pair of heads from a running bike and now have them.

Even though I posted this on the 1100 sub-forum I wanted to put it here as well. My question is how to safely clean the face of the heads (and I am going to replace both since I have them). There is still some gasket material stuck on the head of one of them. Also, in the picture you may be able to see some plaque on a valve, more on the other one, and I want to know the best way to clean that off, if it is even necessary. I have used a wire wheel in the past to clean valves but I would like some input first.

hmmmm i know this sounds ctazy but w lot of things work great but touch and feel is everytuing ...putty knives plastic and steel...files ...end faced wire wheels work great...touch is what keeps damage from happening

The heads are nice and clean and seem to be flat. But i noticed that there are a couple of the exhaust studs missing. I have been trying to get them loose from another head without success with a vice grip. Could they be in a backward thread?

no there not backwards

Yeah Joe, just found that out. Thanks