I Messed Up Help (Valve Shim Measuring)

[Guest]

Hello All,

While waiting for ignition parts to arrive, I decided it was finally time to adjust my valves. Long story short I took out my 1st of 3 tight valve shims, not thinking about it at the time I decided to rotate the cam to the next position. Now one of my tappets is stuck in the shim seat. If I bought the tappet tool would this help me get it out of the shim seat?
As of now, i am using the zip tie method to keep the valves open.

[5150/gs]

8 valve engines do not have tappets, 16 valve do, if you took shims out you wouldn't have tappets. Rotating the cam with the shims removed is unfortunate common mistake. What is the bike you own? Year? Model?

[5150/gs]

ok i looked, you have a 80 gs550 , rotating the cam with the shims out causes damage to the cam, many threads on it so try searching, hopefully you did not do too much damage.
I am assuming the engine wont turn over because the cam got stuck. Do not turn the engine forcefully and cause more damage.
may have to pull the cams now, can you post pictures?

[chuck hahn]

Put a shim in the ones you can and unlike the previous response, your gonna just have to crank it over till the cam lobe come out. It will scuff off some of the edge of the cam lobe casting but it wont be an issue. Put a shim in that bucket and ride the thing...done.

Dont believe me..then ask the countless others that have done this, rolled the cam lobe out and proceeded.

If you really want to tear the cams out, go thru all the retiming and etc etc then have at it.

[larson7]

Yes sorry, Bike is an 80 gs 550 and I meant I am afraid of damaging the cam lobe not tappet(wrong term). The best bet would be taking the cams off, correct?
I only have one shim out as of now.

[larson7]

If I do just crank through it, the correct way to measure the valve shims is to measure each one, and place them back inside the cup after measurement, correct?

What about the depressor tool, could i use this to try and force down the valve while rotating the cam?

[chuck hahn]

Cant use the depressor tool and roll it because as soon as you twitch the cam shaft it will fly out of there and slam the bucket up into the lobe. Best bet is to measure each shims gap and record it...leaving the shims in. Then remove only the ones that are out of spec one at a time to see what thickness they are and put them back in after recording the info.

record what shim size is in each tight one and then see what ones can be shuffled around. get as many as you can within spec with what you have to work with. Then PM Ray at the shim club and tell him what you need. Finish the adjustment when they arrive and button it up.

See my very simple way I check and track my shims. Just write down the bike and the mileage at the top of the sheet for referencing later when it gets close to the redo mileage.

http://www.thegsresources.com/_forum/showthread.php?204012-Chucks-simplified-spreadsheet&highlight=chucks+spread+sheet

[larson7]

Thanks for the advice Chuck, I did get it out only slightly breaking the edges of less than .0625" of the cam lobe. I ensured there were no metal shavings left and placed the shim back in.

My results are as following:

The valves denoted with the * indicate that it was a tight fit getting the .038 mm feeler in between
I have been reading especially for exhaust valves it's better to leave it on the looser side than tight.
I may just order the next size down, any input on this would be appreciated.

Cylinder Number intake exhaust 1 fine fine 2 tight 2.70 fine 2.60* 3 fine tight 2.60 4 Tight 2.65* Fine 2.60*

[chuck hahn]

Intake 4 i would get a 2.62. The exhaust ones I would go with a 2.57 That way these should be at least around a .06MM gap which is good.

Cant make any suggestions on the other tight ones because I dont know what feeler gauge was tight for them. Just follow what the chartb tells you and do the math. Ghostgs1 ( Ray ) will get the shims out soon as you tell him whats needed.