Valve cover gasket replacement tips?

I've got the rear valve cover off of the bike. Did some cleaning and polishing and the old gaskets were leaking. Have new OEM gaskets. What is the best way to get the rear valve cover and gasket back on the bike without going insane? And the front?

I use Permatex Blue. Smear just a tiny bit around the cover. The only purpose of the Blue is to hold the gasket to the cover during installation. There's a rubber tab on the gaskets that connect the front to the rear. Cut that off. Press gasket into place and let set for 30 minutes.

For front, remove carbs, let radiator hang forward, remove fan shroud including rubber heat shield, left side electrical heat shield, right side coolant manifold heat shield, and screw holding vboost cable to servo motor.

I'm assuming you already drained the coolant and removed the hoses going into the engine?

I use Permetex high tac spray. Some here use permatex silicon. I prefer to use the hightac spray due to it doesnt come off and get into the oil and possibly clog il passages in the motor.

Take the new gasket spray it with hightac let it hang on a coat hanger to dry about 5 mins take it off the hanger and place it on the valve cover let it sit in the valve cover for 15-20 mins.

Note: Torque valve hardware to factory torque specs. If not you will be removing the valve cover to replace a cam support/holdown. They are soft aluminum and strip out if over torqued.

Good luck it can be done without removing the engine from the bike with some patience.

The rear valve cover is a tight fit. But it will go in.
I used Permatex to hold the gasket onto the valve cover and let that sit for about ten minutes. Then make sure any hoses and wires are completely out of the way. The cover will go in but be VERY careful as to not let it pull the rubber plugs out of the top of the cam caps. And do not use a ratchet on the valve cover bolts, they will twist right off if you apply to much torque if your lucky like me, or they could strip out the cam cap.

Others have said you have to remove the carbs, but I have done both front and rear on mine without removing the carbs. I just removed the radiator, removed both side scoops and all the rubber gaurds and removed the screws for the vboost servo motor so i could move that up out of the way.

Thanks for the tips, guys. Sounds like it is quite the chore no matter how you do it, especially the front. Hopefully I can get it done. The current ones are/have been leaking quite badly and probably have been for many years. I noticed when I was changing the clutch slave cylinder that the crankcase wall that the slave cylinder mates to was all gunked up with old oil and dirt. Most likely it was the leaking valve covers over a period of years that did this.

I have 2 torque wrenches - in another garage an hours drive from here and they are probably too large. Is there a particular wrench that can be used in those tight spaces and with allen screws?

Valve cover and gasket went on without a hitch. Wiggled it for like 3 minutes and it went on. I made sure everything that needed to be was slicked up with oil, including the gasket, so that assembly would be easier.

I did not remove the rear coolant hose for removal or reinstallation. I slicked it up with WD-40 so that the cover would move around it. I did remove the fuel pump; rather, I unbolted it and moved it back and tied it with wire.

Everything went well until I realized that I put the cover on backwards. Inside the cover is an arrow, which I oriented toward the front of the bike. The cover wouldn't fit, so I got to do it all over again. This makes me think the front and rear valve covers are switched.

I'll work on the front one after I renew my motivation.

Well, last night I mustered up the motivation to attack the front valve cover gasket. What a job. There really isn't an easy way to do it. You have to remove a lot just to get to it and the cover seems to be impossibly large when you try to wiggle it between the engine and the frame.

I removed both air scoops; the electrical components on the left side; had to disconnect all coolant hoses on the right hand side; coolant temperature electrics; removed radiator and let hang; coolant pipe near valve cover spark plug area; v-boost servo motor bracket bolts (2 on each side near the coils); v-boost cable (loosened a bracket which allowed me to move the cable; rubber shroud; etc.

Once all of that is removed, you can get to the valve cover bolts. Removed those. Found that the valve cover is a super tight fit between the frame and front of the engine. Coaxed the valve cover out the right hand side of the bike.

Polished up the valve cover a bit before reinstalling. Reinstalling was a bear. Gasket came out of the valve cover gasket track in places. Was really worried. Coaxed the cover/gasket down flush through the right hand side by somehow getting it around the coolant pipe flange near the spark plug. I can't say enough about the lack of space to work with... Inspected the gasket all the way around the valve cover to see if it slipped out of its track. Looks good so far but who knows.

This was not a fun job and I haven't even had time to test for leaks yet.