painful first valve adjustment, still not sure I am anywhre near done

[donimo]

Argh, so taking out of the equation the fact that the PO glued the damn valve cover on with silicone (apparently mixed with crazy glue), plus that the tach cable came apart into 3 peices, or that I have FOUR sets of wrenches, all of which go 8mm, 10mm, 11mm, 12mm, etc, but guess what I needed? right, a 9mm. And lets TOTALLY forget how I mixed up left side and right side when using the "camshaft marks" guide and ended up have to start from the beginning, you think having 3/4" of free play in there would tip me off, man...

So the most painful part, is it supposed to take a jamillion tries for every valve? Its like "ok, that one is right, but now that one s wrong, fixed, ok now the first one is off again"???

Please tell me a trick.

[MrZig]

Since we have the same engine, I got a question.

What's the process you're using when adjusting the valves? Do you set the camshaft notches to the outside and then adjust the exhausts, then put the notches towards the inside and do the intakes? Or can you just put the lobe opposite of the valve and do it that way?

I know on the inline-4's you have to do it a very specific way otherwise it'll distort the clearance, but what's the proper way on an inline-2?

Edit: I ask this because when I did my valves, I just made the lobe opposite of the valve on each one I was working on. Apparently that might be bad?

[Suzuki mad]

Did a valve clearnace on a GSX250 last year. Who ever did it last swapped over half way around so that the some valves were set to open 180 degree's out and thats on a twin.

I stand one side and work from there. Makes it simple on a 4 cylinder.

[donimo]

my book says to do it l-ex, r-ex, l-int, r-int, which I did (backwards at first), then all over again.

The problem I had was it seemed that because the 2 valves are kind of attached that when you did one of the 2 valves on each cylinder that would throw off the other. Mix in the fact that sometimes tightening the lock nut spun the adjuster a bit and sometimes it didnt and it just seems like a roll of the dice every single valve...


and I bent my feeler guage so that made it fun too, ah well, beginners luck ha ha.

[MrZig]

my book says to do it l-ex, r-ex, l-int, r-int, which I did (backwards at first), then all over again.

The problem I had was it seemed that because the 2 valves are kind of attached that when you did one of the 2 valves on each cylinder that would throw off the other. Mix in the fact that sometimes tightening the lock nut spun the adjuster a bit and sometimes it didnt and it just seems like a roll of the dice every single valve...


and I bent my feeler guage so that made it fun too, ah well, beginners luck ha ha.

What position should the cam be when you do this?

[Joe Nardy]

The best way to adjust 4 valve engines is to use two feeler gauges and do both valves of one rocker arm together. This will help because doing them one at a time can introduce play in the rocker arm that will skew the measurement. Also, Motion Pro makes a tool that allows you to hold the adjustment while tightening the locknut: http://motionpro.com/motorcycle/partno/08-0073/

You have to buy the whole set but it does come in handy.

Thanks,
Joe