a few thousandths of an inch

[Scotts]

Its amazing what this makes in the valve clearance department.

Thanks Mr Basic and Mr Bass for providing the information.

Scott

[BassCliff]

A silly millimeter longer

Hi Mr. Scotts,

It's more like a few hundredths of a millimeter. :-D

I was amazed at the difference after I did my first valve adjustment. I don't think my valves had ever been checked. I had 5 valves that were less than .04mm. Now that they're in spec, Jessie is smoother and quicker.

Good work.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[BentRod]

when i first checked my clearences, and OldSchoolOrange can attest to this, 5 of the 8 were greater that 12 thousandths, and 2 were over 18 thousands.. it was dicrepid and disgusting.

[Outlander]

Now this scares me to death.

I don't know what it is about cams, cranks, bearings and pistons, but I do know that I am severely intimidated about doing any adjustment myself. I figure it to be, that if I do it wrong, I trash the engine, and that is just not acceptable.

One of the things I need to do when my bike is all legal like, is to take it to the dealer and have them adjust my valves. To my knowledge, I don't think it has ever been done. Bike has 18k on it for miles, and I know it needs it. Whilst it is there, I will have them sync the carbs too. Guess this is going to cost me more than I was anticipating.....

[tkent02]

I don't know what it is about cams, cranks, bearings and pistons, but I do know that I am severely intimidated about doing any adjustment myself. I figure it to be, that if I do it wrong, I trash the engine, and that is just not acceptable.

But it's acceptable for a dealer to trash your engine?
Do it yourself if you want it done right.

[Steve]

One of the things I need to do when my bike is all legal like, is to take it to the dealer and have them adjust my valves. ... Whilst it is there, I will have them sync the carbs too. Guess this is going to cost me more than I was anticipating.....

Good luck. They may not even let it in the door. :shock:

Yep, many dealers are drawing the line at 10 or 15 years. Anything older than that, they don't want to work on. Seems that having to drill out and re-tap broken bolts kinda eats up into the time that the flat-rate manual allots to each repair, and most owners don't want to put that much money into a bike that is that old, so they don't even look at the bike to see if it might be in good enough shape to work on.

But it's acceptable for a dealer to trash your engine?
Do it yourself if you want it done right.

Let's see ... you want him to trash it himself, right at home? [-( :-\"

.

[Ed Vrolijk]

Hi Mr. Scotts,

It's more like a few hundredths of a millimeter. :-D

Isn't that the same?:-D
Ed

[Pete Logan]

Isn't that the same?:-D
Ed

Almost never :-D:-D

[Nessism]

The hardest part, by far, in doing a valve adjustment job is getting the old gasket off. You also need patients since you first need to get a valve tool and then get new shims to set the clearance properly after you measure the clearance.

There is one shop in my area that will swap shims for you if you need one. Last time there the service manager gave me some Kawasaki shims in place of my Suzuki ones saying they work fine. Took them home only to find they are smaller diameter and don't sit snug in the top of the bucket. This is the type of monkey business you will experience if trusting a shop to work on your bike. It's both cheaper and more reliable to just do the work yourself.

[BassCliff]

I don't know what it is about cams, cranks, bearings and pistons, but I do know that I am severely intimidated about doing any adjustment myself. I figure it to be, that if I do it wrong, I trash the engine, and that is just not acceptable.

One of the things I need to do when my bike is all legal like, is to take it to the dealer and have them adjust my valves. To my knowledge, I don't think it has ever been done. Bike has 18k on it for miles, and I know it needs it. Whilst it is there, I will have them sync the carbs too. Guess this is going to cost me more than I was anticipating.....

Hi Mr. Outlander,

Study your manual, then check the information on my website. If I can do this valve adjustment thing, I'm certain you can. After all, I'm just a computer geek musician, not a mechanic. But the good folks here are teaching me.

It is very, very rare to find an honest, reliable mechanic who loves to work on these classic bikes. I've heard many horror stories.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

[Roostabunny]

Hi Mr. Outlander,

Study your manual, then check the information on my website. If I can do this valve adjustment thing, I'm certain you can. After all, I'm just a computer geek musician, not a mechanic. But the good folks here are teaching me.

It is very, very rare to find an honest, reliable mechanic who loves to work on these classic bikes. I've heard many horror stories.

Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

I'll add my voice to chorus saying "you can do it!". :-D

I'm a newb mechanic as well, and thanks to Basscliff's very own valve adjustment tutorial (with great pics) I went through mine with no problems. It was way scarier before than after. The hardest parts (aside from getting the old gasket off the first time) is getting the darn valve cover off and finding a local shim supplier.

I've heard debate on the usefullness of the valve shim tool, but I bought one and found it handy. An inexpensive (or borrowed) digital caliper is also handy. I also used Steve's spreadsheet and thought it was great.

[Scotts]

Well for those that do not know mine is an 86 16 valve engine. The factory gasket is rubber with the half moons molded in. It slipped right off. It has a groove and tongue that hold it into the valve cover. With the aid of some RTV.

She springs right to life and off choke quicker. I do not have need for the shims. It adjusts the same as the old air cooled bugs I had. First time and had to keep an eye on the grandsons as well. 2 hours or so.

You can do it.

Scott