It IS from one of the "Beauty Covers"

may rattle, may wear the finish, up to you.

boule, give the guy a break.
he opened it up, look at it, wasn't seeing what he should, and backed off.  good for him, he's here asking questions.  next time he'll try again and maybe get it right or will come back with more questions.  irritating as hell, but good for him, he's trying.

EJID, please note that clymers tells you to turn the crank the wrong way.  To find the right TDC is simple, take off the valve covers, take off the timing port cover, turn the crank in the same direction the wheels rotate forward, watch the intake valves, they'll go down then up, then watch for the mark to come around on the crank, when it matches up with the mark on the cover (about a half turn), stop and adjust your valves.

Now getrdone.  

Boule'
I actually think I bought your old Clymer manual where you had already noted to turn the crank CCW, but thanks for pointing that out again. I was turning it CCW.

Vers
I used your tech description to try this time as well. I don't have an offset wrench so I was using a socket to turn the crank. With the spark plug out every time I turned it, it tended to turn right past the mark on the case that you mention. I tried putting the plug back in and doing it again, where I was able to stop at the timing mark, but still did not feel like I could get any movement out of the intake valves (closest to the front wheel) so maybe they are adjusted too tight.

I will dive back in again, but I might have a second person there to offer a second opinion. Last thing I want to do is adjust something the wrong way  

Thanks for all the advice though guys!!!

The rotation motion you are describing is powered or driven by the valve springs being under tension feeding back through the cam chain to the crank.

You have not found the correct top dead center.   You are not even close if you have "roll over" going on while you are looking at the marks.

First, you weren't turning in the right direction -- that screwed you up totally.

Second, you gotta watch the valves open and shut -- watch them rocker arms -- when the intakes go down and come back up again the crank rolling over action stops and that also means you are approaching the correct alignment of the marks.  

NOW you get a plastic soda straw and stick it into the spark plug hole.  Watch the straw go up and the marks come around to align up again.

Both sets of rocker arms should not move during this final alignment partial rotation.  Both sets should be able to be moved side to side slightly (or up and down if you have some valve clearance at this stage).  In other words the rockers are NOT UNDER SPRING TENSION when you are on the compression stroke.

And you got nothing trying to make the crank roll over either.

Copied from another post:


Everything in this procedure references my bike (see signature).

The engine is supposed to be rotated to Top Dead Center (TDC) on the compression stroke to perform numerous procedures, including, but not limited to, setting the valve clearance, removing the head cover, and adjusting the free play in the automatic de-compression cable.

The problem is that there are two different TDC's on a four stroke engine.  One occurs on the compression stroke and one occurs on the exhaust stroke.

To find the one you want (the one on the compression stroke), remove the valve timing inspection plug.  I use this tool to remove this plug, the middle sized bit works great:

Motion Pro Timing Plug Tool

Now you've exposed the flanged nut on the port side of the crankshaft.  On my bike, this nut takes a 17mm socket.  Rotate this nut counter-clockwise (trust me, not Clymer) until the index marks on the nut lines up with the index mark (notch) in the valve timing inspection hole:





Now, you've got to determine if you are at TDC on the compression stroke (YAY!) or if you are at TDC on the exhaust stroke (BOO, HISS!).

If you've got at least one of the valve inspection caps off, just try to jiggle the rocker arms with your fingers.  If there is some play present, you are on the compression stroke, where you want to be.  If they are all tight, with no play, you are on the exhaust stroke.  In this case, you will need to rotate the crankshaft nut counter-clockwise through another full rotation and line the index marks up again.  Then, you should be on the compression stroke, but perform the above check just to be sure.

NOTE:  The possibility exists that the valve lash is set too tight and you will not be able to detect any rocker arm movement, regardless of the position of the crankshaft.  This is but one reason I prefer the following method when finding TDC of the compression stroke.

If you don't have at least one of the valve inspection caps off, you will need to make note of the position of the decompression valve lever when you rotate it counter-clockwise against the stop.  You will be able to rotate if farther at TDC on the exhaust stroke than you can when at TDC on the compression stroke.  You may need to rotate the crankshaft a few times to get a feel for this.

Here are some pics illustrating what I am talking about:

Here is how far I could rotate the decompression valve lever counter-clockwise when I was at TDC on the compression stroke:





And, here is how far I could rotate the decompression valve lever counter-clockwise when I was at TDC on the exhaust stroke:





When I am finally where I want to be (i.e. TDC on the compression stroke, I just put some clear tape over the valve timing inspection hole to keep dirt out.  That way, I can look every now and again and reassure myself that I'm still at TDC:





IHTH someone!

So the whole TDC thing has been on my mind ever since I opened it up last time, but this time I was determined to get it right and find out exactly where I am on my tolerances.

After a couple tries and watching closely and jiggling the rockers I believe (99%) that I found the right TDC. Tried getting the feeler gauges in and that is quite a contortionist act   but I was success full  

Both intake valves (closest to the carb) measured a snug .003"
Sitting on the bike looking forward the exhaust valve on the right front also measured a snug .003" but the one on the left measured a snug .005"

Since they are all in spec I think I will just put it back together and not worry about it for a while.

Next maintenance task will be to take off the side cover to check the cam chain tensioner. I've got a little over 6k on it right now, so I "should" be ok and I think I will wait until winter to tackle that one.

Thanks again for everyone's advice to get me on the right track, this forum is awesome!!!!