Hi,
If this is not the correct location let me know and I’ll move it.
I’ll be brief and provide as much pertinent info as possible.
2008 CRF450X purchased used several years ago. Bike was immaculate with no signs of abuse. Never had any issues with it running, I did perform all the recommended air box and carb changes once I bought it. The ‘pink wire’ has been removed from the connector. Stock header, FMF powercore silencer. Trail tech high output stator to power Baja designs squadron pro light. Other than that, bike is stock.
Pulled the tank to change spark plug and decided to check valve clearance at that time. Intakes were in spec and exhaust measure .09 and .11 mm compared to .28 per the manual. My failure, I did not take note of any timing marks before disassembly as I have the shop manual and was confident I could line everything up per the manual during assembly. I changed the shims and found TDC on the right clutch side view hole, then proceeded to line up three things per the shop manual. 1) dash mark on the cam sprocket to the arrow mark, 2) decompressor pin to the weighted arm on the cam sprocket (2008 has a sort of auto decompressor mechanism that resides on the cam sprocket. A pin on the decompressor shaft lines up with an opening on the weighted arm), and 3) the cam sprocket bolt holes line up with the camshaft. With the TDC mark on the right clutch side view hole lined up and these other three lines up on the cam and sprocket I continued with assembly. I am 100% sure these were all lined up. I checked and triple checked. Once assembled I went to start with the electric start and something sounded different. No hard metal noises just difference in the starter motor sound. No start. I hopped up on it and tried kicking and the stroke through the kick starter felt different. This, with the change in sound on the electric starter led me to believe it was timing related. I pulled the left side view hole to check marks on the flywheel. I rolled though the entire cycle several times and did not see any flywheel marks to compare my previous timing line up to. My next step is to pull the flywheel cover, but aside from that I am at a complete loss. Per the shop manual I only needed to line up the right side TDC punch mark and the cam line up marks and that’s it. Is the manual missing a step? Am I missing something easy? This is my third CRF450 and don’t remember running into this. I’ve seen other similar threads about the 450X but didn’t see any clear resolution on those threads. Any info is appreciated.
Thanks.