• Required reading for all forum users!!!

    Welcome!
    Register to access the full functionality of the GSResources forum. Until you register and activate your account you will not have full forum access, nor will you be able to post or reply to messages.

    A note to new registrants...
    All new forum registrations must be activated via email before you have full access to the forum.

    A Special Note about Email accounts!
    DO NOT SIGN UP USING hotmail, outlook, gmx, sbcglobal, att, bellsouth or email.com. They delete our forum signup emails.

    A note to old forum members...
    I receive numerous requests from people who can no longer log in because their accounts were deleted. As mentioned in the forum FAQ, user accounts are deleted if you haven't logged in for the past 6 months. If you can't log in, then create a new forum account. If you don't get an error message, then check your email account for an activation message. If you get a message stating that the email address is already in use, then your account still exists so follow the instructions in the forum FAQ for resetting your password.

    Have you forgotten your password or have a new email address? Then read the forum FAQ for details on how to reset it.

    Any email requests for "can't log in anymore" problems or "lost my password" problems will be deleted. Read the forum FAQ and follow the instructions there - that's what we have one for...

  • Returning Visitors

    If you are a returning visitor who never received your confirmation email, then odds are your email provider is blockinig emails from our server. The only thing that can be done to get around this is you will have to try creating another forum account using an email address from another domain.

    If you are a returning visitor to the forum and can't log in using your old forum name and password but used to be able to then chances are your account is deleted. Purges of the databases are done regularly. You will have to create a new forum account and you should be all set.

Shims tight from sitting?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MatBirch
  • Start date Start date
M

MatBirch

Guest
I tore into checking and adjusting the valves on my '80 550L. What I found was that I couldn't fit even my thinnest feeler guage (.0015) in, except for #2, which I could get the .0020 in. Waaaaaay to tight right?
A little history- I picked up this bike after it had sat for a long time. It has 15,000 original miles. Don't know for sure when it ran last, but the last time it was registered was 1990, and the last registered owner died in 2001. I cleaned it up, serviced the carbs and electrical, and got it running. It never ran on the #3 cylinder, but I wanted to know the valve condition before I go chasing ghosts.
Long and short, for the mileage, they seem really tight. Can the valves just tighten up over time sitting there? Am I overlooking a basic maintenance issue that needs to be handled before I get an accurate reading?
Oh- compression was good before I tore into it last fall. Can't remember exactly, but all were close to where they should be

-thanks!
 
Valves tighten with mileage. Bike may not have ever had the valves adjusted before. Neglect of maintenance kills a lot of GS's. Good thing you got your hands on it...
 
They tighten up from being run, that's why they need to be adjusted. They can't wear if it isn't running. Set them where they need to be, then fix all of the other things.

More of these bikes got parked back in the day due to tight valves than anything else.

If it has run 15,000 miles from new with no adjustments it's likely to have a bunch of tight valves.
 
This is very typical -- 10,000 to 15,000 miles is where the valve clearances tighten to the point that a neglected bike becomes hard to start.

One day, the battery ran down before the owner at the time could get it to start, and the bike hadn't been running very well anyway for a while, and it wasn't much fun to ride any more, and so he pushed it to the back of the garage. Or out to the barn. Or worse, out next to the barn... :(
 
Thanks Guys!
I shall continue forth! :D
bwringer- sounds like a pretty likely scenario. Seen it a time or two have you? All you're missing is-
As he says to himself "I'll look at it this weekend"...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top