Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech will not be riding this weekend

I removed my cams Monday night to measure my shims. When I removed my alternator cover to line up the marks for timeing I tore the gasket in 2 places. I'm thinking that next time I do the shims, I really don't need to remove the cover. I'll just use the marks on the cams. Anyway, I ordered 6 new shims and everything else I needed, to be mailed to me. The parts man called me and said he only had 1 2.925mm shim. Of course I needed 2. It would take another 2 weeks before I would get the shim if he ordered it. So I'm going for a 2.90mm shim. If I hadn,t tore my gasket to pieces I could be rideing while waiting for parts. Just a heads up on removeing the alternator cover, first try the timeing marks on the cams first, you could always remove the alternator cover after if your not satisfied with the cam markings...
leonard

You're right, as long as you don't disturb the timing on the idler shaft, you should be able to realign the cams with it instead of looking at the mark inside the case. If thetiming of the idler was off, it would be pretty obvious, either the cams wouldn't align with the marks or the engine would be really sick.