Don't believe all you read

setting the valve timing on my XS500, book says set crank to mark, set camshafts to marks, join chain, turn twice forward, then release cam chain tensioner. Not so, you must tension the chain before rotating the crank, or it will skip a tooth.

 

Used to have a friend who said "Don't believe what you read and only half of what you see".

 

You need to consider that the service manuals are written by engineers who are not technicians, and have never performed this task. I've had to re-write several manuals along the way, as well as change book times, many of them GM and Honda. Not just trivial items but no-brainer things like installing a knee bolster before attaching the steering column in a Sierra? A timing belt on a 2005 Civic with A/C and P/S in 2.3 hrs?

 

Or that according to th Haynes diagram an Xl250S has 9 cogs in th tranny, when there are 10 on th bench..