I was having trouble starting my 87 mojave and after searching this forum I guessed that I needed to adjust my valves. after pulling the cover and turning the rotor I did a valve adjust. then tried to rotate again. My book said CCW but someone here said to turn CW I went CW. Is this ok?
Than I found my cam timing was off almost 90 degrees. Did I do this by turning the wrong way? I pulled the cam chain tensioner to re set the cam. the book talks about spinning the rod in to reset the tensioner mine didn't move. I can push it in and out an inch or so. Is this supposed to be spring loaded could this be why the timing jumped?

Thanks Mojave Experts!!!

 

all you need to do is make sure you have it at top dead center for the compression stroke, the best way to do this is take out the plastic peice in the center of the flywheel cover and turn it with a wrench while looking at the cam sprockets from the side, when each of the dots on the camshaft sprockets lines up .ie, when both the dots are on opposite sides of the 2 camshafts and the dots line up against the top of the head when looking at it sideways. this is top dead center, now do all your valve adjusting with the feeler gauges and it should fire right up if done right if you need any more help just post, i have had to do this about 10 times last winter so its like im a pro. lol

 

MAn its so funny i was talking to some people teh other day and tehy said that i should get my valves adjusted every 25hours or so! And i have had my mojave for 3 years and have never touched them! Maby iam just lucky i gess!

 

Hey BOOB I think it was your post that convinced me that I could tackle the valve adjust. I thought it would be cut and dry but after setting the clearance I put the socket to the stator and ran it around again, the timing chain bound a little then the exhust cam jumped about 15 degrees and there is slack in the chain.the intake shows 180 degrees like it should. This is what I noticed before that got me to take out the chain tensioner and reset the exhust cam to 180 the other way. I am not sure if this is just something that I am doing now or if this is what happened last ride that is making starting so hard.

 

hmmm well when i turn it with my socket it just turns then rotates itself but i never had jumped timing? could it be a problem with your tensioner or something? if it is that would definatly need fixed because i broke my old timing chain because of a faulty tensioner, well even tho you put the cam back in just make sure you put it in when the engine is at top dead senter, take of the top part of the flywheel cover and turn until you see a ":T" in the window, hope this helps a little, it was never this hard for me

 

technically. you are supposed to turn the motor over counterclockwise, looking at the left side of the motor. it's not a bad idea to replace the tensioner with the age of the bike, and a chain wouldn't hurt either. how was the valve clearance before you attempted to adjust it? were they tight, because that will cause hard starting for sure. when you reset the tensioner, you usually turn the flathead screw behind the access bolt CW(i think) until it stops, then turn it CCW just a bit and it springs back into place.

 

since its spring loaded to adjust a little bit at a time as the chain moves its course you have you turn it right (clockwise) i tihnk , or untill the end of the tensioner is retracting into the body of it and then hold that position with a screwdriver and place it in, if you let the screwdriver out then itll just pop back out (the tensioner) and itll have to be reset, also they go for 70$ and the chain is 70$, i had to replace both chain and tensioner

 

i'm not sure on the mojave, i was thinking it was like my yz400f. so to reset the tensioner, you push it into place by rotating CW and then hold it with a screwdriver?

 

OK from what everybody is saying I am sure that the tensioner is bad.. This brings me to the BIG problem while I was waiting to hear from you all I took off the clutch cover to clean the oil screen.That is when the trouble began....There is metal shavings coating the screen. they look like they were brass colored. like a half teaspoon full. If the tensioner was bad, cam jumped time,and my son had some friends riding (some that know how to shift and some that.....) so it was ridden out of time will the valves or piston be chewed up now?
So is this going to be my first attempt at a major overhaul? Great for a rookie wheeler!!!!!!!!!!

 

correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't the 87 mojave's have brass kickstart gears or idlers? so maybe that is what you're seeing in the screen. besides i wouldn't be too concerned with what you find in there as long as its not a ton of it or too big. you have to think, how many times does the average rider ever clean out the oil pump screen? probably rarely to never.