Valve Clearances 1977 GS750

[Guest]

In my quest to get the subject bike into fit condition, I'm tackling the shim on bucket valve clearances.

The Suzuki manual calls for 1 to 3 thou between the shim and the cam's base circle. For both intake and exhaust.

All 8 of my buckets turn freely, so all valves have "some" clearance.

About 3 valves will take a 2 thou feeler, but not a 3 thou.

The remaining 5 valves won't take the 2 thou feeler, and I don't have a 1 thou feeler.

I'd like to get 2 thou clearance on all the valves.

What do you guys think of this approach?

Thanks........................

[tkent02]

Use metric numbers and the rest of us can understand. The fact that they all are able to spin probably means you avoided any valve damage, hopefully.
Looser is better, go for the looser side of the spec. The clearances almost always get tighter as things wear, so start loose.
The Suzuki Service Manual says .03mm to .08mm, most of us try for about .05mm to .10mm.

[WDHewson]

Use metric numbers and the rest of us can understand. The fact that they all are able to spin probably means you avoided any valve damage, hopefully.
Looser is better, go for the looser side of the spec. The clearances almost always get tighter as things wear, so start loose.
The Suzuki Service Manual says .03mm to .08mm, most of us try for about .05mm to .10mm.

Gotta be multilingual in math these days.

There's about 40 thou in a mm. So 0.03 mm times 40 is 1,2 thou, or 1 thou.

And 0.08 mm times 40 is 3.2 thou, or 3 thou.

Hence, my 1 to 3 thou clearance.

[Nessism]

Most likely those where the .002 won't pass will be okay if you go down one shim size.