1982 GS650GL Valve Adjustment quick question

[Rich82GS750TZ]

Cmarino, if you have no luck getting a response from member Steve (he hasn't been around lately and I don't see his email on his profile anymore), let me know. The spreadsheet is on my home computer and I can send it to you. You have to have excel, you don't necessarily have to be very good at using Excel to use the spreadsheet. I had steve send me his spreadsheet that will help to organize what clearances you have/shims you have vs. clearances you need/shims you may need or can swap. You see, I asked Steve to send me the spreadsheet before I knew any better. My bike has the 16 valve engine, not shim over bucket, but clearance adjusted with a different process. That is to say, we all start somewhere, knowing very little. Coming here opens up a lot of knowledge.

[Cmarino]

Who Dat? To answer some questions - I remeasured the 'correct' way, the results stayed the same but two of the gaps slightly tightened. The numbers on the left I was referring to are the numbers imprinted on the head next to each valve. You can see them here if you zoom in to the pictures. I measured with each lobe parallel to the head initially, I don't really see how measuring this way could significantly change the results.

I don't plan on keeping the bike another 3k miles, so I will probably not check the valve shims that I listed, they all seem to be close enough in spec, unless there's another good reason besides for future reference that someone suggests. For all of the cylinders that I could not get a measurement on, should I order all new shims based on this -

My smallest gauge, .0015 can not get in 4/8 valves

( .003(spec) - .001(current estimated gap) ) + old shim size ?

[Cmarino]

Thanks for all the advice by the way everyone. I am aware to record the shim size and gap for each cylinder, so I should be okay without the spreadsheet

[phydeauxmutt]

Those numbers that you put in the left column don't mean a darn thing related to numbering the valve. In fact, I doubt that anyone outside of the factory that made the head even has a clue what they are for, but ignore them and toss them away.

The difference in measuring the correct way is that, when in that position, neither lobe on that side of the cam is pushing on a valve. Pushing on the valve would push the cam away from the valve and squeeze the oil out, giving just a bit of 'extra' room on the other valve.

Please do it the right way or don't bother doing it at all.