Valve adjustment on the fence.

[renobruce]

Yours is the last Suzuki dealership that has even heard of shims.

OH all the dealerships round here have heard of them

Usually goes
"12.99 each and we'll have to order them"

Then i call Z1

One of the local dealerships will swap shims but all they have are 2.70 and up, about worthless. At a boneyard, I went with my micrometer and spent better than 20 minutes looking through a coffee can full of kawasaki and suzuki shims to find a 2.60 that I needed. Found one, needed two; used a 2.55x to get close. Paid $5 for the pair. Don't think will do again however.

Both the dealerships in Reno and Carson City have buckets full of them! They have Kawi and Yamaha ones, too! Both shops have been around since the 60's, so that's probably why.

[BassCliff]

Mr. TheCafeKid,

I documented one of my valve adjustments on my little BikeCliff website. If I'm reading it right, the Suzuki shop manual says to put the #1 exhaust lobe forward at 90 degrees (parallel to the top of the head) and check #1 and #2 exhaust clearance. Put the #4 exhaust lobe forward at 90 degrees and check #3 and #4 exhaust clearance. Put the #1 intake lobe straight up (perpendicular - at a right angle - to the top of the head) and measure intake #1 and #2 clearance. Then put the #4 intake straight up and measure #3 and #4 clearance.

If my .04mm feeler gauge was too tight or wouldn't fit, I changed the shims (I don't have a .03mm feeler gauge). The "X" sizes do come in handy for really "dialing in" your clearances. A digital caliper is good to have to make precise measurements of the shims.

My bike ran so much smoother after swapping out 5 shims. I guess it had been a while since the valve clearances had been checked. I bought "Jessie" with 13,800 and never knew if she'd ever had a valve adjustment. Another one will be due at the next oil change.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[TheCafeKid]

Yeah i figured this thing was probably going to need it, but the exhaust are right in the middle of spec, so i dont think i'll mess with those. My intakes ALL are tight at four. It goes in, but not easy. Im on my way down to pop em out and see what im looking at for replacement.

[TheCafeKid]

ROOIT!! Lil help here boy'os! Catalogued all my shims on both sides, hoping to do some swapping..

Exaust as i said is nice up to 06 save for one is tighter than i first got when gaugeing them. THREE felt a lil tight. But here's the run down, someone tell me if im correct when i say what im going to do...

Intake side

1- 2.75 2- 2.80 3- 2.80 4-2.75

Exhaust side

1- 2.8 2-28 3-2.75 4 2.65

Here's the plan stan....

All intake sides, going down one whole size respectively.

Exhaust side.... as i said all are clear to 06 minus number 3. SOOO

move shim from 3 (2.75) to four and fours to three...will that work??

Not trying to be cheap, but would be nice to not HAVE to buy a shim if i got one sittin here.

[TheCafeKid]

AND someone please explain to me why the BOOK says measure with the lobe up rather than flat?

[TheCafeKid]

And would it hurt to drop them one and a half? Say a 2.8 to a 2.65?? To much?

[Steve]

And would it hurt to drop them one and a half? Say a 2.8 to a 2.65?? To much?

If your clearance was exactly 0.03mm (the minimum) and you changed ONE shim size, your new clearance would be 0.08 mm (the maximum), so why would you want to change more than one size? If it takes more than one shim size to bring it into range, that means that the valve was never closing, so I would suspect burned valves, too. :shock:


.

[TheCafeKid]

AHh ok see that was confusing me. Almight Steve..answer me this...Im tight at 04 all across my intake ( couldnt find a set of feelers that go to 03 anywhere so i bought these from Z1) My number 3 exhaust is tight at 04... Cyl one is kewl to 05 and the rest will go to 06. Drop one across the board on the intake and one on the number 3 ex right?

[TheCafeKid]

Ok i think i figured out my confusion. IS THIS RIGHT?

Say i have a clearance of .03 and the shim is a 2.75. Changing the shim to a 2.70 adds the .05mm of clearance i need to get back to spec correct?

[Steve]

OK, shuffle time. :shock:

On the intake side, try moving shim #1 to #2 or #4 to #3. You might end up doing both of them anyway, but do one and measure it. See if your clearance is between .08 and .09. If so, your clearance before was between .03 and .04. Leave it at the larger one. Go ahead and do the other side, too, and check the clearance again. You do not have any 2.70 shims that you can put in intakes 1&4, so it looks like you will have to buy them, but you can put the 2.65 from Exhaust #4 in to verify. Since that is two sizes smaller, you should end up with .05 too much clearance on intakes 1&4. This will verify whether you need a 2.65 or a 2.70 in those locations.

On the exhaust side, again, you don't have any 2.70 shims to check #3, so take the 2.65 from #4, put it in #3 and see if you have .05 too much clearance. If you do, they you will need a 2.70, for sure.

If all that works out, it looks like IN 1 will move to IN 2, IN 4 will move to IN 3, two new 2.70 shims will go in IN 1&4. You will put a third new 2.70 shim in EX 3.

Total shopping list, assuming the measurements work as they should: three 2.70 shims.


.

[TheCafeKid]

Ok was already in the process of that when you posted. Unfortunately, my smallest (2.65) did nothing to change one of the 2.75's i replaced. However i have a pretty good range of them here all the way to 2.5 that i snaked out of a head i bought. Forgive me again, but when runing the feeler gauge, if it WONT go under the lobe, its too tight right? I have at 04 it going about half way in, does it need to pass all the way thru?

[TheCafeKid]

Looks like i have run into the same problem as Kurt.
My exhaust side is fine. My intake side might be F-ed. DAMNIT

[robertob]

AND someone please explain to me why the BOOK says measure with the lobe up rather than flat?

Lobe UP/away from the shim is the most accurate way.

BUT, lobe at 90 degrees to the shim is also acceptable.

The factory has you do it that way on some of them so that you don't have to turn the motor as many times.

[49er]

Ok was already in the process of that when you posted. Unfortunately, my smallest (2.65) did nothing to change one of the 2.75's i replaced. However i have a pretty good range of them here all the way to 2.5 that i snaked out of a head i bought. Forgive me again, but when runing the feeler gauge, if it WONT go under the lobe, its too tight right? I have at 04 it going about half way in, does it need to pass all the way thru?

TCK, it is good practise to measure the existing shims with a vernier to confirm that they are as marked. I have found incorrectly marked shims when measuring up X shims at a breakers yard. Of the 40 odd shims I measured, 3 had incorrect sizes stamped on them. I'm sure that they hadn't been ground, as they all had the grey oxide surface commonly seen on these shims. Most ground shims aren't marked with their size anyway, so you have to measure them!
You should be able to lightly force the feeler blade between the lob and bucket. On high mileage 8 valve engines, you will find that the feeler will be tighter on one side of the blade (width wise). This is because the lobes wear slightly tapered due to the camshafts flexing under high rpms. The 16 valve engines have more cam bearing support so aren't as prone to this problem.

[TheCafeKid]

Oh ive had the calipers out the whole time for that very reason! Thanks for the help tho bro. I have relegated myself to the fact that the whole intake side is just that Far out. Ive examined the valves from what i can see and i dont see any scorching or pitting so im hoping that this didnt cook em. Its totally odd ball that the exhaust side were all in spec, but the intake was up to four sizes out.