Valve shim question

[Jaguarjoe]

When installing a valve shim, how do you get it to center itself in the tappet seat? Mine repeatedly slide down due to gravity and don't want to sit in their seat. I finally eneded up coating the shim with grease and that helped keep it from falling but did not help popping it into its seat.

Is their a trick to this because I don't think it should be so troublesome?

[mn_ba]

I've never had any trouble getting the shim to drop into the bucket either on my GS 1100Gk or my Honda CB900. It is a pretty tight fit, but I just use a tweezers and slip the shim in at an angle from the middle (ie above the spark plug holes). Sometimes the shim will slide past the bucket, but a little (gentle) finagling with a small screwdriver pushing from the other side in concert with the tweezers will get the shim to pop into place. The cam lobe does need to be pointed strait up to gain enough clearance. I use the little half-circle with a handle tappet holder-downer tool from Motion Pro with good results. Just be careful that the opposite cam is not pushing its valve down--you don't want the intake and exhaust valve to meet in the combustion chamber. Turn the engine either clockwise or counter-clockwise as appropriate.

Incidently, where did you get the shims from? I just ordered (presumably non-OEM) shims from www.Z1enterprises which have not yet arrived. I hope they fit properly. Has anyone had any experience with these shims?

[Jaguarjoe]

I didn't know about the exhaust and intake being able to interfere with each other. That's a good tip, for sure!
I also use the half circle with the handle holder downer tool too. It seems to work pretty good if you get a good 'bite' on the tappet.
I had to adjust three shims on my bike. As luck would have it, I was able to reuse one of them in another location. That's where I encountered difficulty getting it to plop in place. The other two new ones I bought from Flatout Motorcycles. www.flatoutmotorcycles.com They are less expensive than Bikebandit is.

[bwringer]

Incidently, where did you get the shims from? I just ordered (presumably non-OEM) shims from www.Z1enterprises which have not yet arrived. I hope they fit properly. Has anyone had any experience with these shims?

CRC2 (and a few others) sell the Motion Pro aftermarket shims, and they've always worked just fine for me.

[mn_ba]

I'm actually not sure if the valves are able to hit each other on an 8 valve GS. I haven't had mine long enough to have the head off yet. I would think that the valves would be larger on a two-valve-per-cylinder head and thus more likely to interfere with one-another. It probably depends more on the angle of the valves and of course the lift of the cam. The Clymer manual for my Honda CB900 (with 16 valves) warns to be careful to not open both intake and exhaust valves on the same cylinder at the same time while holding a valve open with the valve holder tool. In order to do that you have to turn the engine counter-clockwise (or backwards anyway--some bikes have crankshafts that spin counter-clockwise in operation--when viewed from the right side that is) after inserting the hold-down tool for some of the valves--I forget which ones but it is obvious at the time you are doing it. A subtle point that I missed the first time I adjusted the valves on the Honda. I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to get at the shim from one valve without at least slightly depressing the lifter of the opposite valve. Luckily, no harm was done, but I was sweating bullets for awhile. At any rate, the hold down tool only holds the valve open part-way and I am sure all bikes are different. But it is a good, possibly necessary technique to use every time.

Looks like Flatout sells shims from "K&L" and "Hot Cams" I'm guessing the ones from Z1 Enterprises are from K&L.

Hope you get your shims in place.

Cheers

[SqDancerLynn1]

Just don't try using shims from a Kawasaki

[maclariz]

Anyone know of a good supplier for shims in the UK?

[Steve]

Just don't try using shims from a Kawasaki

Let's go a step further and say Yamaha, too, then explain why.

Kawasaki and Yamaha use shims that are 29mm across, Suzuki shims are 29.5mm. Sounds like they should work, but the shims would not be properly restrained and could do some interesting (and expen$ive) things.

I am keenly aware of this difference in shim size as, at one time, I had 1 Honda, 1 Kawasaki, 2 Yamahas and 2 Suzukis in my garage to maintain. Yes, they all belonged to members of the immediate family (and there's only three of us that ride). 8-[
The Kaw is now gone, and the Honda has hydraulic lifters. One Yamaha will soon be on the auction block, so that leaves me with just one Venture Royale and two GSs that need the occasional valve adjustment. \\/


.

[salty_monk]

OE shims have a little chamfer around the edge, the ones from Z1 didn't have this & it did make them a little bit harder to get in or out (the oil in the bucket acts with a suction effect).

I filed a small chamfer (just broke the corner really) on the shims I got from Z1 to improve it, took all of 30 seconds.....

Dan