Valve Clearance Results. Normal?

[Guest]

I checked my valve clearances last night and got some strange results.

Ex1 and In1 were both at 0.0015"

The other six were all less than 0.001" and I didn't have a feeler gauge less than a thou.

Obviously those six are out of spec, but has anyone seen that many valves out on the low end like that?

[Shawn68z]

I am not an expert, but from what I understand the clearances get smaller as the valve wears. Basically as the valve wears away, the stem will get pulled closer to the cam, so the tolerance between the shim and cam get smaller.

I just checked my valves yesterday, and 6 of the valves are tighter then .04mm (1.5 thou), I4 was .05mm, and E4 was .08mm.

Looks like i will be joining the shim club soon.

http://www.cycleorings.com/gs850valve_adjust.pdf

Cheers,
Shawn.

[huntb]

Yeah, I guess my bike has over 20k miles on it and I have a hard time believing they ever got checked. I'm the third owner of this bike (technically only the second because the real second owner never even signed the title or registered it)

[ShadowFocus603]

http://guglielmo.us/mc/valve_clearances.html

Best how-to I've seen to date

[loud et]

**Important***Just make sure you check the valves using the Suzuki manual method or the way described on Basscliffs site. NO Clymers.
One other tip the guys here say is that if you cant get a feeler in there, do this:
With the cam in the proper position to check the gap, if you can spin the bucket easily, change by one size, if you cannot spin the bucket easily, change by two sizes....this will put you back in spec.

[Steve]

As long as you checked the clearances with the cams in the proper positions, those numbers are typical, and they should ALL be changed.

The problem is that you don't know exactly how much on six of them. You might get by with one shim size, you might need two.

Take your thinnest shim (you did inventory them, didn't you?), put a quarter in its place, move it to the other spots to see if you have enough clearance.
If your thinnest shim is too thin, you will have extra clearance, but that is easier to measure than negative clearance.

.

[blowerbike]

the valves wear into the valve seat thus causing you to lose clearance/lash.
if the stem tip wore then you would have increased clearance/lash.

[huntb]

As long as you checked the clearances with the cams in the proper positions, those numbers are typical, and they should ALL be changed.

The problem is that you don't know exactly how much on six of them. You might get by with one shim size, you might need two.

Take your thinnest shim (you did inventory them, didn't you?), put a quarter in its place, move it to the other spots to see if you have enough clearance.
If your thinnest shim is too thin, you will have extra clearance, but that is easier to measure than negative clearance.

.

I used the guides on Cliff's website and had the cams in the proper positions, and yes I used your spreadsheet to inventory them. I guess I never thought of putting a quarter in there (didn't think it would work) and changing them around.

I will try that method using my thinnest shim, but so far I'm planning on replacing at least 7 of them

[Mr.Mom]

Confession of an amateur hack... Don't turn the cams with no shims in The bucket retaining ring(?) gouged the edges of my lobes. Hopefully the cams won't be to out of balance.

On a side note all of my 8 valves measured under .02mm clearance!

[Nessism]

Confession of an amateur hack... Don't turn the cams with no shims in The bucket retaining ring(?) gouged the edges of my lobes. Hopefully the cams won't be to out of balance.

On a side note all of my 8 valves measured under .02mm clearance!

This is what happens when people don't do maintenance. Hopefully the valves aren't all burned up.